Tears of Flame: From the Ashes
by Lily Itriwi
Summary: Lily is badly scarred after abuse from her father. Hogwarts is a new start for her, but things never seem to go her way. She's forbidden from doing magic, bullied and belittled by her peers - will they ever see there's more to Lily than even she knows?
1. Escape

Tears of Flame

Disclaimer – If you don't recognise it it's mine. If you do, it ain't. Simple, yes?

A/N This is the first fanfic I've written, so please r/r and tell me (honestly) what you think. I don't mind flames, I know my writing leaves definite room for improvement. I do, admittedly, have something of an L/J fanfic fetish, so you'll probably hear more of me in time. Oh, a warning – this chapter includes strong language that some may find offensive. And things in italics are thoughts. Enjoy!

Chapter 1 - Escape

She lay there, in the corner of her room, between the stacks of boxes. _Where it was safest, she thought to herself, __where she had most protection. She cringed back from the door, even though it was closed, pushing against the wall, hoping it would swallow her up and keep her safe. Her mind numb with shock, she curled up, causing her stiff and aching limbs to screech in pain. Her face still stung where he had hit her. Limp auburn hair hung over her face, another wall, another way to protect herself. __This is wrong! she thought. __He's my father, he should look after me, not treat me like this! Her fingers, shaking in fury and fear, traced the bruises that spiralled down her arms and the rapidly swelling lump on her forehead. Despite the pain, Lily refused to cry. She wouldn't give him power over her, or at least, no more than he already had. _

            Lily tried to slow her breathing, which was ragged and heavy, making her frail frame heave with emotion. She tried to slow the flow of adrenaline coursing through her veins. _One day, she promised herself__, one day…_

            Eventually, her eyes fluttered shut as she retreated within herself, back to her memories of the days when no one could hurt her, where no one had tried. Lily's mind was filled with shadows of the life she'd had, filled with shadows of her mother; her scent, a clinging hint of spring rains and roses; her hair, a cascade of blonde past her waist; her laugh, a refreshing tinkle of far off bells; her smile, that pulled Lily in and told her she would never be alone. But she was. In her mind, Lily saw her mother, clear as if it were yesterday, twirling round her, pulling Lily into the dance. Lily saw her mother, just as she remembered, but she couldn't so much as glimpse her eyes. _Mama, show me your eyes. I can't remember your eyes. Oh, please Mama… but Mama just spun away, laughing, her eyes obscured by her flowing blonde halo. _

            Dad was different in those days, Lily knew. She pictured him too, laughing as he picked Lily up and spun her round, and Lily laughed with him. He pulled her in close and hugged her before setting her down again. Lily watched as her mother, out of breath with the dance, sat on the grass, butterflies dancing around her head. _She's so beautiful, Lily thought__. She was__ so beautiful…_

_            But then it all changed._

            Lily was not sure when her memories of her mother slipped into dreams. She relaxed subconsciously, releasing the tension she had not even known she still carried. Her breathing was now deep and measured, in time with her pounding feet as she ran barefoot through her dream, chasing a pale blue butterfly, like the ones she'd imagined with her mother. Laughing, she tripped over her own feet and tumbled over the soft grass, before springing back up and continuing the chase. Reaching out with her hands, she enclosed the butterfly in hot fingers, careful not to hurt it. She drew it close and opened her hands. She watched it flutter on her fingers, enjoying the rare moment of peace. Then a voice came out of nowhere. 

            It was little more than a whisper, a whisper that seemed close and very distant at the same time. The voice was male and felt like soft spring flowers, but the distant echo sounded firm and incredibly wise, as old as the mountains. In her dream Lily realised without surprise the voice was coming from the butterfly, and as if it were nothing unusual she lifted it to her ear and could distinguish the words in the whisper.

            "Fear not, whatever may happen, for I am coming for you and I will keep you safe. You are not alone." Lily smiled, and watched as the butterfly flew away towards the sun. Feeling happy and hopeful, the dream Lily curled up on the damp grass and drifted to sleep, warmed by the dying rays of the sun.

***

            The warmth of her dream remained with Lily as she woke, and clambered clumsily out from behind the piles of boxes, her bruised limbs cramped from the awkward position she had been sleeping in. She knew she could trust the voice, that it would help her. It had sounded so serene, it gave her a sense of wellbeing that remained with her too, and as she reached the kitchen and started to make her dad's coffee she sang a little to herself. Singing was one of the few things that kept Lily going. A small act of defiance, to prove to herself that her heart and mind were free, however battered her body. Unsurprisingly, her dad hated it when she sang, even if it was only softly to herself. Therefore she rationed her singing, and it was all the sweeter for the thrill of danger. If her dad ever caught her, he hit her. It showed him he wasn't completely in control of her, that she was still free. He hated to feel like he wasn't in control. 

            Lily was still wrapped up in her dream, wondering what it meant, as her dad walked into the room and demanded his coffee. She was so lost to reality that she didn't notice she was singing quietly as she took the steaming coffee cup over to him. She put it down next to him on the table and turned away, but he grabbed her wrist, fingers clenched so hard he bruised her pale skin, and she gave a gasp of surprise and pain, the faint hovering smile vanishing from her lips. 

            Lily, uncomprehending, looked into his eyes, to see them glinting coldly in his reddening face, glaring at her in anger and malice. He opened his mouth and raised a hand, as if unsure which weapon to use. Lily flinched back as he struck with both.

            "What the fuck do you think you're doing, you little brat!" he snarled, viciously backhanding her across the face. Her hand went up instinctively to her stinging cheek, her eyes blinking back tears of pain and shock. "What are you up to, eh? Why are you so fucking happy? Why the hell are you singing?" He slapped her again, and she staggered under the force of the blow. For a moment it looked as if she was going to collapse, but she drew herself up tall, eyes blazing as red as her hair, and said softly "Because Mum came to me last night. She keeps me singing." Her father looked slightly taken aback at her defiance, and coupled with the mention of his wife it made him even more livid than before. Eyes narrowed until they were almost indistinguishable from his progressively purpler face, he grabbed the first object that was within reach of his hand and flung it at Lily, as hard as he could.

            Scalding coffee drenched one side of Lily's face, which was turning red and blistering within seconds. The mug hit Lily's forehead and shattered, a shard of china cutting open her cheek. A vivid red lump stood out where the mug had struck, pulsing softly in time with Lily's heartbeat.

            Lily didn't feel any pain. In fact, she didn't feel anything very much. She didn't even really register what had happened. All Lily felt was anger. Her father, expecting her to collapse, sobbing, to the floor stared at her in shock as she seemingly grew at least two feet and advanced menacingly towards him, her eyes on fire. His eyes widened in shock and fear as sparks of lightning crackled amid Lily's wild curls. He backed away from her, staring. What was happening? She continued her deadly advance, fire at her fingertips and murder in her eyes. An aura of power radiated off her glowing skin, and waves of fury rolled from her. Her father scrambled frantically across the floor and curled up in the corner, whimpering. Lily stopped a few feet in front of him and pointed a finger at him. A bolt of lightning leapt from her hair and ran down her arm, gathering at her fingertip. Ready to strike if she said the word. They both knew it would be fatal. But the word never came. Glaring at the wreck of her father pleading with her from the corner, Lily returned to herself. The lightning disappeared, along with much of her fury. This… this pathetic creature deserved nothing but her pity. Killing him wouldn't be worth the effort. Giving her father a last, contemptuous glare, Lily turned on her heel and left the house. Her father still sobbed hysterically on the kitchen floor. Lily never wanted to see him again.

***

            Hours later, Lily came reluctantly to a stop and felt the last of her anger drain away, and with it her last vestige of strength. Anger had been all that was fuelling her frenzied walk through the grimy city streets. She was now in a dingy alleyway, utterly and irrevocably lost. As she stopped, the pain from her horrific injuries came flooding back, her face feeling like it was on fire. With a last futile wail of anguish and despair, the pain became too much, and Lily blacked out.

***

"Honey! Honey, wake up! "She heard a voice call through the darkness. She turned and saw her mother's beautiful face before her. Lily was still sobbing from the pain in her face, but the sight of her mother wrenched her heart. It was a deeper, terrible pain, and Lily burst into fresh tears and shrieked at her mother "Why? Why did you leave me? Why did you leave me with him?"  Her mother just looked sadly at her, and before Lily could demand an answer, the voice came again, "What's wrong, dear? Wake up!" Her head screamed in pain and her mother's face swam before her eyes, turning into that of a concerned looking woman who had ginger hair with a streak of silver. "Who… Wh… Where…?" Lily stuttered weakly, before the scene faded once again, the pain overwhelming her.


	2. New Hope

Tears of Flame

Disclaimer – The good stuff is owned by J K Rowling, my absolute idol. The OK stuff I probably nicked from someone else. If so, SORRY!!!! If it's bad, it's probably mine. The chapter title was not intended to be stolen from Star Wars, but has been…

Chapter 2 – New Hope

Lily's eyes fluttered open once again, but the light was unbearably bright and she squoze them tightly shut again. This movement shot an excruciating burst of pain through her left eye. Instinctively, her eyes opened once again, the light wasn't as bad as the pain, but once she was used to the light, Lily discovered something much worse. She realised to her horror that she couldn't see anything through her painful left eye, and little through her right. She was practically blind. 

***

            Lily's screams brought three nurses running into her hospital room, looking shocked at the sight of the distraught girl sobbing on her bed, but relieved all the same that she had finally regained consciousness. A dumpy nurse with curly brown hair, who was clearly in charge, took stock of the situation immediately. "Send for Dumbledore" she muttered to the short blonde trainee beside her. "We'll need all the help we can get." She shooed the worried nurses from the room before cautiously approaching the weeping red head on the bed. Uncertain of how to halt the anguished sobs from the young girl, she tentatively placed a hand on her shoulder, but the girl shrank away from the gentle touch. "Come on dear, what's wrong?" the nurse said, concerned by the poor girl's reaction. This girl's scars were clearly much deeper than the horrific red burns across her face. Whatever had happened to her? She couldn't be older than ten… 

            The nurse felt anger boil within her at the thought of how the poor girl would live in the future… would they be able to cure her? Or would she stay blind and scarred? Fury raced through her body… What… or who… could have done this to her? She needed to know. Curbing her anger with some difficulty, she turned back to the girl. "Don't cry, sweetie, we'll try to make it better… I'm Arabella Figg, your nurse, what's your name?" 

            The sobs continued, unrelenting, from the girl. Bella waited, but as the minutes passed, she realised she wouldn't get an answer. "Come on honey, tell me what's wrong?"  

            Arabella swept the weeping child into a hug, ignoring the girl flinching back from her touch. "Don't worry, dear, it'll be fine, you'll see." "L-li-lily" Arabella was taken aback when the girl, still cringing from Arabella's hug, finally spoke, although her sobs were unabated. "What's that, dear?" "My name is Lily."

            Arabella held Lily close, clucking soothingly to her under her breath until Lily's body went limp as she fell asleep, silent tears still streaming down her face. She lay Lily's slight form back onto the bed, heart clenched in sorrow for the unknown girl. _Poor child Arabella thought __she's probably a muggle. Arabella's heart felt another stab of pity as she thought of the girl having to return to the harsh cruel muggle world where she'd been treated so badly. __Not that our world's much better she thought, her mind drifting to the paper that morning. The leading story had been about an up and coming 'Dark Lord'. It had been thought he was one of the 'small fry' – power hungry wizards who appear every few years, slaughter a few muggles then disappear when they've accumulated enough cash for a few years, or are done in by their own followers when they become too ambitious or greedy. But this one's spate of muggle killings had suddenly become much more serious:- the Armstrongs, a prominent pureblood family had been discovered murdered in their beds, with the dark wizard's sign – a skull with a snake protruding from its mouth like a tongue – shining in the sky over their house. It was believed that this new wizard was the protégée of a Dark Queen who had emerged five or six years before and had organised some of the worst Auror massacres for centuries. Now, under the growing shadow of the Dark Queen, Lithara, and her heir, Voldemort, the wizarding world was struggling to maintain its semblance of a normal existence. If they gave in to the panic swelling beneath the surface, their lives would be chaos…_

            Arabella dragged her thoughts away, and glanced once more at the girl on the bed, tears glistening on Arabella's cheeks too, to match Lily's own. She promised herself then to help Lily as much as she could, to face her monsters and leave them behind…

***

            "Lily? Lily dear? You must be bored. I can get you some books or something. What do you like to do?" Arabella asked a day or two later, when Lily's eyes were a lot better – she could see, although things were rather blurry. "I like to read, especially fantasy. All that magic – I wish it were real," Arabella fidgeted uncomfortably. "And I love to draw. Could you get me some pencils and paper? And I like to sing…" Lily's voice faded softly, and fresh tears began to fall from her sore eyes. 

            "What's wrong dear? Does it hurt to talk? I can get some of the ointment if you like…" Arabella's concerned eyes looked into Lily's and she wrapped an arm around Lily's shoulders.

            "He used to hit me if I sang. That's why…" Lily, unable to go on, gestured to her face. "He was hitting me because I was singing. And I talked about Mum, and he got really mad, and threw the coffee at me." Lily dissolved into sobs. "Who, dear? Your father?" Arabella probed carefully, and Lily nodded mutely. "Why did he get so angry when you talked about your mum?" "She disappeared. When I was four. One day, everything was fine, and the next, she'd gone. Took my sister, Petunia, and I never saw her again. Dad got really mad at her, and at me – I think maybe he blamed me for her leaving. So he started to drink, got all depressed, and took all his troubles out on me. I don't know why she left, and I'm angry at her for leaving me but I miss her so much. I still dream about her, you know. I wish she'd come back for me…"

            Arabella wrapped the now distraught Lily in a comforting hug, shushing her gently. Outwardly, Arabella was calm and comforting, but inside she was seething. How could anyone do that to their own child? Hit a four-year-old, torment and torture her for six years… it was inhuman. And the mother wasn't much better, abandoning Lily like that. No wonder the poor girl wouldn't trust anyone. She'd been hurt deeply, scarred perhaps for life, by the two people who were supposed to protect her. It would take a long time to heal, but Arabella saw that Lily would make it. She had inner strength that belied her frail frame and young age. She was a ten-year-old of nerve and steel. She had to be, to have survived six years of mental and physical pain at the hands of her own father. Arabella drew Lily even closer, her tears mingling with Lily's as she shared her pain.

***

            After a month in the hospital, Lily was nearly ready to go home. The only problem was, she had no home to go to. Arabella offered to look after her for the time being, but didn't think this could become permanent. _I'd love to she thought, __but she's a muggle! She needs to be with her own kind… She was still anxiously awaiting Dumbledore's arrival; she didn't have a clue what to do with Lily now._

            Lily was in much better spirits after her month in hospital. Her eyesight had almost completely returned, and although her face was scarred and needed to be bandaged for several more months, she only had sporadic spasms of pain through it. Her cut was healed, although that too would leave a scar. Even her psychological scars were starting to heal. Much of this was to do with Arabella's care and attention. She had become a surrogate mother to Lily, and both of them took comfort from the relationship. Lily, too was worried about what would happen next – she didn't think she could cope with being separated, once again, from someone she considered her mother. 

            So when Dumbledore finally arrived, the two awaited him with a strange mix of relief and anxiety. 

            Lily was surprised when an old man wearing a deep purple dress swept into her room. Worriedly, _Had he come from the mental patient ward or something? she watched him and was about to ask what he was doing there when Arabella arrived, sighing in relief._

            "Ah, Dumbledore, at last," she greeted him. Lily's eyes widened. This old man was the one they'd been waiting for, who'd tell her where she was going to spend the rest of her childhood? She stared at him, convinced he was insane. 

            "I am extremely sorry, Arabella, for my delay. I've been engaged very much at present, I had to organise the rescue of three Auror families that Lithara had captured before I could come," he was saying.

            Lily couldn't understand half of what he was saying, but Arabella seemed to. She gasped "Who?" in shock, before shaking her head. "No that can wait until later. First things first. What should we do about Lily? I refuse to send her back to that… that… monster, and she really can't stay with me." She then hissed in an undertone to Dumbledore, but Lily caught the words although they didn't make any sense. "I mean, she's a muggle."

            "Ah, my dear Arabella, that's where you're wrong," said Dumbledore, smiling beatifically. For the first time, Lily could see into his eyes. They were pale blue and sparkling, full of wisdom and humour, as if the world was a joke that only he could understand. Although he seemed completely crazy, Lily couldn't help trusting him. He seemed familiar, somehow…

            Arabella stood in shock, her eyes wide with hope. "What? Dumbledore… do you mean…?"

            "Yes," he said firmly. "Lily is a witch."


	3. Different

Tears of Flame

Disclaimer – you know the drill. If you know it, it's JK's, if you don't then I wrote it.

A/N – Sorry if you think Lily got over her abuse too quickly, I was getting bored with 'poor little abused Lily'. I also really hate the whole going through the letter, Diagon Alley, Platform 9 and ¾, Hogwarts Express thing, so I tried to get that all out of the way as quickly as possible. The wood Lily's wand is made of is a real wood. I know it doesn't strictly follow the HP story, but this is my fanfic, and it fits better with my story. I also seemed to have overused the word 'gawping'. I'm sorry, but it's a really cool word. Enjoy! 

Oh if you know any good L/J fics, I love 'em. 

Chapter 3 – Different

Lily sat in shock. "I'm a what? Did you just say what I thought you did?"

            Dumbledore smiled again, and his eyes twinkled. "Indeed, my dear. You are a witch. And a very powerful one too. A great deal of potential."

            "Witches really exist? I thought they were just stories." Lily was flabbergasted.

            "They really exist, dear." This was Arabella. "I am one myself. Dumbledore here is the greatest wizard of the era." Dumbledore gave a little bow, and smiled at Lily.

            "Really? You can do magic? Can I see? Please?"

            Arabella smiled. "Oh, all right. Just one quick spell." Lily stared as Arabella brought out a thin stick of wood. "Is that…?" she said, gawping.

            Arabella smiled at Lily, amused. "Yes, it's a magic wand. Now watch." She drew back her sleeves, flicked her wrist and said "Felicitatia!" With that, several fireworks burst from the end of her wand and a shower of sparkles rained down around Lily. "There you go" said Arabella, giggling slightly at Lily's amazement. "A simple celebration charm."

            "Wow," Lily said, still gawping at Arabella. "Can I do that?"

            "You will be able to," Arabella replied, "but you'll need to be trained first. That's where Dumbledore here comes in."

            "You see, Lily, I am the current headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where the most talented young witches and wizards in the country are trained. You will be one of them."

            "But Dumbledore, she's too young," said Arabella anxiously. "She's only ten. What'll she do for a year until she's old enough?"

            "Well, normally that would be a problem, but as Lily has so much potential," Lily beamed at the praise "and has really got nowhere else to go," Lily's smile faltered a little "I feel it quite acceptable that she starts Hogwarts a year early." Lily's grin returned full force. 

            "Really? Wow. I'm really gonna learn magic?! That's so cool! When can I start?"

            Dumbledore chuckled at the joyful child, and Arabella marvelled at the contrast between the happy, hyper girl and the gaunt skeleton she had been a mere month ago. 

            "Well, the school year starts on September the first, but we'd be happy for you to arrive earlier, unless…" he trailed off, glancing at Arabella.

            "Of course she's staying with me over the summer, Dumbledore! Why would you think otherwise? And she'll go to Hogwarts on the train with all the others. Best way of meeting friends, I've found."

            "And enemies, too, Arabella, but that's exactly what I'd hoped you'd say. When Lily's quite recovered you'll be able to take her to Diagon Alley, I trust?"

            "Of course, Dumbledore, but she needs to rest now. Hush Lily, I know you're excited," Lily was jumping on the bed and squealing protests at Arabella "but you need your rest. Now Albus, you were telling me about the fight against Lithara…" Arabella grabbed Dumbledore by the arm and pulled him into her office, insisting that Lily needed to sleep. 

***

            Within a week of Dumbledore's visit, Lily was well enough to leave St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, although her head was still swathed in bandages. As promised, Lily spent the four remaining weeks of the summer holidays at Arabella's. They had a great time, Arabella teaching Lily about the wizarding world, and Lily teaching Arabella how to play tennis. Lily, although amazed by many of the things she found out, got very frustrated with Arabella's 'lessons' more often than not, as Arabella refused to tell her very much – she said it would be more exciting if it was a surprise, and was deaf to Lily's protests. Tennis, in it's turn, infuriated Arabella, buit that was simply because she was abysmally bad at it. (Lily found this hilarious, although she wasn't exactly a great player herself.) The two went swimming often, too, and they even went to a theme park one day, after a week of Lily's pleas. The day out left Lily ecstatic and very hyper, and Arabella decidedly green. The trip to Diagon Alley came and went, and Lily was enthralled with her purchases. She now spent most of every day with her nose buried in one or other of her text books, or learning chess from Arabella with her new Wizard Chess set. 

            Lily was also now the proud owner of a coal black kitten with glowing orange eyes, which she had affectionately named Ember. It went everywhere with Lily, usually perched on her shoulder, which seemed to be it's favourite place. Many people stared at Lily wherever she went, and this was no surprise. She did look very peculiar, with her head wrapped in bandages like a mummy and a small black cat riding on her shoulder. 

            The most memorable part of her trip to Diagon Alley though was, in Lily's opinion, buying her wand. The guy in the shop, Mr Ollivander, had pale silver eyes and knew so much about her it was creepy. 

            They'd spent about three quarters of an hour going through nearly every wand in the shop, much to the annoyance of the awaiting customers and the delight of Mr Ollivander. Suddenly, Mr Ollivander gave a start and stared closely at Lily. "Ah, of course. I wonder why I didn't see it earlier," he muttered to himself, before retreating into the back room of the shop.

            "See what?" Lily called after him, before turning to Arabella with the same question. Arabella had become increasingly worried as the size of the tried wand pile increased, but looked just as baffled as Lily at Mr Ollivander's strange remark. But Mr Ollivander swept back into the room, bearing a small box that he held delicately with his fingertips, as though afraid to disturb what was within it. He reverently opened it and handed the wand within to Lily. "This, my dear, is made of African tulip tree wood, or more commonly, Flame-of-the-Forest, and contains a phoenix feather. I believe that this is the wand that has been waiting for you." 

            Lily took the wand from him with some trepidation, and felt her skin prickle along her arms and the back of her neck. She took a deep breath and waved it, and to her shock, a stream of fire leapt from the wand, igniting the huge heap of tried wands and boxes on the floor. Horror-struck, Lily stared at the wand in her hand, and the fire disappeared as quickly as it had come. Lily ran to the charred heap, apologising profusely to Mr Ollivander, but soon discovered that apologies were unnecessary. The wands, most of Mr Ollivander's stock, were unharmed, lying among the ashes of their boxes. Lily gawped. What kind of fire was that?

            Mr Ollivander chuckled lightly at her puzzlement, and she whipped her head around to look at him. "It takes more than fire to harm an Ollivander wand, my dear. Do not worry. But be careful. That wand you have there is very powerful, and very destructive. You must learn to control your own powers, and your wand's. You will have struggles enough in your life, Miss Evans. I wish you luck. But you must learn control, of your powers and of your temper. It is imperative. Once again, Lily Evans, good luck. You will need it."

            Arabella, eyes wide and worried, paid and thanked Mr Ollivander, and hurried Lily, who was still shocked and puzzled, from the shop.

***

            The remainder of the summer passed in a flash, and before they knew it, it was September the first and Lily and Arabella were on Platform 9 and ¾ of King's Cross Station saying goodbye. 

            "I'll miss you dear, but I'll see you in the holidays. That is, if you don't want to stay at Hogwarts with your friends. Much more fun that way!" Arabella smiled at Lily. "Work hard, I'm sure you will, and have loads of fun!" 

            Lily, who had been growing more and more excited throughout the morning suddenly turned rather subdued. "But what if I don't have any friends? You see the way they're all staring at me. They think I'm weird." She stuttered, tears coming to her eyes. This was true, the other children around Lily were staring openly at her bandaged head, whereas the older teenagers and adults kept their eyes carefully averted from her and avoided looking at her altogether. 

            "Oh, Lily," said Arabella, sweeping Lily into a hug. "The people who can't see past the bandages aren't worth getting to know anyway." In truth, Arabella, who knew the fickleness of children, had been worried about this too. "Anyway, the bandages will be off by December" she reassured her. Lily smiled gratefully. "Goodbye Arabella. I'll write to you, if I have time." She smiled cheekily, before turning serious and a little sad. "I love you."

            Arabella, who knew what it had cost Lily to say those simple words, grinned. After all, everyone else she'd ever loved had left her. She pulled Lily into another hug and smiled. "I love you too," she whispered into Lily's ear. "Remember don't let the rules get in the way of having fun!"

***

            After waving at Arabella until she was out of sight, Lily slumped back into the velvet covered seat. She listened to the rhythmic rattle of the train and dissolved into it. She sat in a trance-like state, her body joined with the train's motion, until the sound of the compartment's door opening jolted her awake. Her eyes snapped open, and she turned to glare at the two red-heads standing in the doorway.

            "Blimey, what happened to you?" one of them asked in surprise. Lily's hand went involuntarily to her face, feeling the coarse bandages that covered her whole head except her eyes and mouth. 

"Why should I tell you? I don't even know who you are," she said, a barely concealed sneer in her voice. 

"She's right, you know, Alf," said the other red-head. He looked about fifteen. I'm Andrew Weasley, fifth year Gryffindor. This is my brother Alfred. He's a second year, Gryffindor too."

"Lily Evans. I'm new," she replied bluntly.

"So, what did happen to your face?" Andrew tried to shush his little brother, but to no avail. "And you look too young to be a first year, how old're you?" Lily glared ferociously at the boy, and he retreated a little under her gaze. 

"I'm ten, I'm starting a year early," Lily snapped. "And I don't feel like telling you what happened to me."

"Come on, Alf, leave her alone." Andrew tried to drag his brother from the compartment, where he was still gawping at Lily. "Nice to meet you, Lily. Hope you're in Gryffindor." He left Lily's compartment, Alfred following on behind. 

            Lily returned to her thoughts. Would everyone be like that, gawping at her because of the bandages? Would she ever fit in? She looked different, felt different, even. She didn't understand half of what Andrew had said. What on earth was Gryffindor? Lily shook her head to get rid of the thoughts, delved into her trunk and proceeded to bury her nose in 'Magical Theory' by Bathilda Bagshott.

***

            Lily was so deeply emersed in her book that when the compartment door slid open once again and a pale, sandy haired boy entered the room she barely registered his presence. 

            He cleared his throst nervously, and said "Hi, I'm Remus Lupin. What's your name?"

            Lily snapped back an answer, but her voice sounded sad despite her harsh words. "It doesn't matter, you won't stick around long enough to get to know me." Lily's head was hidden behind her book – she didn't want more questions about the bandages. 

            "What makes you say that? The boy, _Remus__, asked, his voice quiet and kind. Lily lowered her book a little so her bright green eyes and several inches of bandages were visible over the top of it._

            "I'm different," she said, her voice conveying her pain and sadness. She expected Remus to make his excuses and leave, or else to start questioning her about it, but he surprised her.

            "Guess what?" he said, and Lily could hear the same pain and suffering in his voice. She looked into his eyes, and saw someone who had been through as much as she had. _This boy can understand! she thought happily. "I'm different too."_

            Lily smiled, her first true smile since she'd left Arabella at the platform. "You mean," she said, hardly daring to hope, "you won't talk about this" she waved a hand towards her bandaged face "like it's the only part of me that counts?" The strange boy smiled back. "If it makes you feel any better, I won't talk about that" he too waved his hand vaguely, "at all." 

            Lily grinned. "I'm sorry for being so rude, it's just I've had it all day…" "I understand," Remus replied. "So what IS your name, anyway?"

"Oh, sorry. Lily. Lily Evans."

"How old are you, you are a first year, right?"

"Yeah, but I'm only ten, Dumbledore let me start a year early." It was only too clear from the tone of her voice that she didn't want to be asked why. Remus understood and respected that, but couldn't help wondering…

"Oh, so you've met the headmaster?" Lily nodded. "He's really nice, isn't he?" Lily grinned cheekily and replied "Yep. Completely off his rocker, but definitely nice."

            Remus chuckled. He liked this girl already.


	4. Beginnings and Bluebottles

Tears of Flame

Disclaimer – As per usual, the good bits are mine (I wish). No, it all belongs to J K Rowling, my goddess. 

A/N –Here is the whole chapter. Would you prefer I put the chapter up in bits, like this one or if you waited a few days for the whole chapter at once? Please tell me. Hope you like the finished chapter… I'm sorry it's taken a while for me to update, but right now I have play rehearsals until 7 every night, I'm studying for exams and I have 2 pieces of science coursework, one piece of statistics coursework and a piece of drama coursework. I haven't slept properly in ages, cos I spend most of the night working. ARGH! I'm going insane! Anyhoo, you probably don't want to hear about my screwed up life, so on with the fic. By the way, all the spells have real meanings. For example, 'Musca domestica' is the Latin name for a housefly (you'll understand when you get there). 

Chapter 4 – Beginnings and Bluebottles

            By the time the Hogwarts Express pulled up in Hogsmeade, Lily and Remus were firm friends. They still both had their secrets of course, but they felt as if they had known the other for years. They had swapped opinions on most things, and had discovered that both were musical (Remus played guitar), mischievous and lonely. They had other similarities too, such as an inordinate fondness for meringue. Lily had gained a basic understanding of Quidditch, and in return had shown Remus some of her sketches. Normally, she never showed anyone them as they were intensely private. Lily was barely recognisable as the withdrawn girl from the station, finding a true friend had given her so much confidence, and she felt happier than she had for as long as she could remember. 

            At the station, they were ordered into small boats by a large - serious understatement – giant-like man, with a tangled beard and crinkly eyes. He smiled sadly at Lily as she passed, gazing at the bandages, and she waved self-consciously.

            Remus and Lily proceeded into the nearest boat. This, perhaps, was a very bad idea:- it contained two rather odd looking boys, who were currently wrestling on the floor of the boat. Lily and Remus glanced at each other with raised eyebrows, before shrugging and sitting down, gawping at the boys. They were, admittedly, a very strange sight. One had orange hair, a large pineapple attached to his shoulder and a distinctly fishy smell. The other had pink bunny ears protruding from under his floppy black hair, what looked like a piranha viciously gnawing on his nose and a long grey beard. Both were glaring daggers at the other, while Lily and Remus were openly staring. Lily, realising that the boys' fight was causing the boat to rock dangerously, grabbed one boy by his hair and the other by his rabbit ears and dragged them apart.

            "Good. Sit. Stay." she said sharply. The boys, open-mouthed and in shock, obeyed her automatically, and she patted them on the head. 

"Good boy, that's it." Remus was now the one rocking the boat, down on the floor in convulsions of laughter. 

"Now, what are your names?" Lily said briskly. 

"Uh, James Potter" the one with orange hair and the pineapple said dazedly. 

"Thirith Black" said the other in the same tone. This sent Remus into even greater fits of laughter. 

"What's so funny, Rem? You shouldn't laugh just cos he can't talk properly, it's not his fault he has a piranha on his nose. Actually, it might be, and it is rather funny, but all the same…"

"No… Sirius… the dog star…" Remus finally managed to gasp out between his guffaws. Tears of laughter were now starting to roll down his cheeks. Lily began to laugh too; it was amusing if you looked at it the right way. 

            The boys appeared to be coming out of their trance, and were now glaring at Lily and Remus instead of each other. 

"What'th tho funny?" asked Thiriuth, sorry, I mean Sirius.

"Lily was treating you like a dog… and your name's Sirius… the dog star…" Remus was finally recovering from his laughter.

"I don't know why you thould laugh, you're hanging out with a fweak." Remus' last remaining giggles stopped instantly. His voice became quiet and menacing. 

"Who are you calling a freak, Black? You're the one with a piranha hanging off his nose."

Sirius winced as the aforementioned piranha finally got down to the bone, but he was still glaring at Lily.

"I'm calling Mummy-girl over there a fweak. I think Nefertiti thuitth (A/N that says 'suits') her better. Why do you care, anyway?"

"She's my friend, and if you don't leave her alone then I'll…"

"Ooh, threath ith it now, Mithter Fweak? I can thee why you're friendth with her, you're both loserth…"

            James, who had been silent throughout the exchange, now spoke up. It was good timing, as Remus was about to launch himself at Sirius, as was Lily, whose eyes were flashing. You could almost see her extend her claws, like a cat. 

"Oy, freak brigade, we're here," he said, causing the other three to forget their fight and glare daggers at him instead. The only thing that saved James from grievous bodily harm was the fact that his words were true. They had arrived at Hogwarts.

            Sirius, Remus and Lily, who had been rather preoccupied on the boat trip over, glanced up and gasped at the breath-taking sight. A magnificent castle loomed in front of them; elaborate turrets and towers reaching high, windows in every spare space, gargoyles leering from the crannies. Some of the delicate stonework was clearly held up by magic – no muggle could ever create a building like this one. The first years stared up at it and James took this opportunity to clamber out of the boat, hoping for a good head start on the other three, who were still looking distinctly murderous. Sirius, snapping out of his trance, followed hot on his heels with his wand drawn, yelling "bye Neffy!" over his shoulder as he went. 

            Lily turned to Remus, a sad look in her eyes. 

"Will they all be like that?" she asked, sighing hopelessly.

"I don't know, Lily, I just don't know," he replied, just as sadly. "Shall we go?"

            They trailed after the disappearing first years moving across the wide lawns to the castle. The giant knocked on the door, and it creaked open. A grizzled man with violet eyes stood there, gazing piercingly into the gabbling mass of first years. Under his sharp stare they grew silent, and he spoke into the still night. "I am Professor O'Cairn, deputy headmaster and Head of Ravenclaw house. If you follow me, we'll proceed to your Sorting. After that, it looks as though some of you," his unnerving gaze swept over James and Sirius with their assorted hexes, "will be in need of a trip to the hospital wing. Now, follow me." He turned and swept away into the castle, and the first years scurried along behind him. He led them into a small chamber next to the Great Hall. 

"Now wait here. Shortly I will return, and you will be sorted into your houses, which are Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor and Slytherin. When you do well, in your studies and in extracurricular activities such as Quidditch," several nervous first years brightened at the mention of their beloved sport, "you will earn house points. However, any misbehaviour," again his glance fell on James and Sirius, "and you will lose them, much to the displeasure of the rest of your house. At the end of the year the house with the most points will be presented with the House Cup. I expect all of you, especially those of you who become Ravenclaws, to work hard to gain points and become a credit to your house." With that, he turned on his heel and walked out, black robes billowing behind him. 

            The first years glanced at each other nervously, but the muttered conversations had only just begun when the professor returned, intoned ominously "it is time…", before once again sweeping out, although this time with a gaggle of frightened first years scuttling along behind him. As they entered the Great Hall, most of the pupils turned to watch them. Uncomfortable with so many eyes on her, Lily stared at her feet and didn't even notice when they stopped, bumping into Remus.

            Professor O'Cairn deposited a dilapidated wizard's hat onto a tall stool in front of the teacher's table. 

            Lily eyed the hat apprehensively. She had already learnt, mainly because of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, to be wary of things in the wizarding world. Why was the hat there? Was it some kind of test? Was it going to sprout fangs and attack them or something? A rip near the brim opened wide, and Lily prepared for the worst… but the hat began to sing. 

"I've sat upon my lonely shelf

For a thousand years or more

But once a year I'm taken down

And I take centre floor

Ears are pricked as you all wait 

To hear what I will shout

For into four school houses

I will Sort you out

But not at random, I will think

Each one through carefully

For which house you will end up in

Rests on your qualities…

If to be a Gryffindor

'Tis bravery you will need

Downright courage, nerves of steel

In thought and word and deed

If to be a Ravenclaw

Its brains you must possess

Intelligence and speed of thought

Wit and cleverness

If you are loyal, staunch and true

A Hufflepuff you'll be

For Hufflepuffs are well-endowed

With warmth and honesty

A Slytherin is cunning

Determined, shrewd and sly

Never would a Slytherin

Let a chance go by

But once you're Sorted, please shout out

And give me a big cheer

For then I'll go back on my shelf

And I'll stay there 'til next year!"

            Lily started laughing, both out of shock and relief, but most of the people around her were applauding the hat's song. Not everyone was impressed by its song, however; Lily could hear thinly veiled sniggers and even caught one seventh year girl muttering to her friend "I swear the songs get worse every year. I think the poor old thing's getting senile."

            Professor O'Cairn once again stepped forward. The noise quieted as he said "when I call your name, put on the hat and wait to be Sorted."

            Lily was relieved, but rather nervous – she still wasn't convinced the hat wasn't going to try and suck her blood. She didn't really know which house she wanted, maybe Ravenclaw. She barely listened to the Sorting, still dwelling on her own thoughts, and Remus had to push her forward when her name was called.

            She stumbled to the front of the hall, sat down and placed the hat on her head.

"Aah." Lily jumped as the hat spoke. "We haven't had one of your kind in years. And one as powerful as you, I can't remember at all, and I've been doing this job for nearly a thousand years!"

"My kind?" Lily asked, puzzled. "Why, what am I?"

"Oh, never you mind, you'll find out soon enough. Oh yes, the Sorting. Well, fiery temper, righteousness, defiance and daring. Only one place for you, my dear! You're the epitome of GRYFFINDOR!"

            Lily grabbed the hat from her head and made her way over to the Gryffindor table, stumbling again on the way. She was still in a kind of stupor; she didn't notice that her applause was somewhat quieter than the others', and that most people in the hall were staring at her bandaged face. She saw Sirius Black, who was still very peculiar looking, already sitting at the Gryffindor table and took a seat as far away from him as possible. She ignored the strange glances she was getting and actually began to concentrate on the Sorting. 

"Fforde, Jasper!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Fittle, Marianne!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Garrulous, Germaine!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

            Professor O'Cairn made his way slowly through the list. Lily was getting increasingly worried. What if Remus wasn't in her house? It looked like he was the only person who was going to treat her normally. 

            The hat was currently Sorting Jewell, Casper. Lily sighed. 'Lupin, Remus' was coming closer. Kanker, Juliette… Kingler, Rupert… Latva, Syraki… Llamar, Charlotte…

"Lupin, Remus!"

Lily crossed her fingers, closed her eyes and wished. She held her breath as the hat opened its mouth…

"GRYFFINDOR!"

            Lily's face split into a wide grin as Remus walked happily over to the Gryffindor table and sat down next to her. 

"We did it, Rem!" she whispered to him. "I know, Lils," he said, grinning from ear to ear. 

            They turned back to the Sorting in time to see Mandragora, Drake and Monaghan, Kathryn both become Slytherins. 

            By the time Warren, Rohanna and Wild, Beline became a Gryffindor and a Hufflepuff respectively, everyone in the hall was growing both hungry and irritable.

"Thank God that's over. Now we can eat!" Remus muttered to Lily, but evidently this was not the case.

            The hall went silent and Lily turned to the teachers' table to see why. She recognised Dumbledore, and he rose to his feet and greeted the students. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts. Most announcements I will leave until after our feast," everyone in the hall gave a sigh of relief. "However, I feel t is imperative that Mr Black and Mr Potter report to the hospital wing immediately."

            Sirius stood up indignantly. "But Thir, the featht…" Dumbledore did his best to look stern, but the twinkle in his eyes rather gave him away.

"Mr Black, if you wish to still have a nose, I fear you will be missing our feast tonight. Piranhas are most persistent, I'm afraid."

            Sirius relented sulkily, and followed James out of the hall, both glaring at each other and bickering about whose fault it was that they were missing the feast. 

"Well, now that's dealt with, all that remains for me to say is, grub's up!" With that the golden plates in front of them became filled with food. Lily quickly got over the surprise, and managed to consume a surprisingly large amount for such a small girl before the food disappeared as suddenly as it had come.

Puddings soon followed, in a wealth of varieties, although both Lily and Remus were disappointed to find no meringues.

Lily was, by this point, so full and tired that she barely heard Dumbledore give the start of term notices, or even the school's rousing rendition of its song. She was also deep in thought. Only Remus had really talked to her so far – during the feast the other Gryffindors had looked warily at her as if she could attack at any moment. It made her want to scream; after all, why was she different form everyone else? She had hoped that at least one of the first year girls would make the effort to see past her bandages, but from what she'd experienced so far, this wasn't going to be likely.

The combination of her thoughts and her tiredness meant that Lily barely noticed the route they took through the strange corridors. Lily was not awake enough to be surprised at the moving pictures, secret passages and hidden doorways that their path took them through. As soon as they reached Gryffindor Tower, it's entrance hidden by a portrait of a large lady dressed in pink, Lily scrambled up the stairs to her dormitory, collapsed into bed and knew no more until morning.

***

Lily woke late the next day, and found her dorm room empty. She was a little hurt that none of the girls had woken her, but realised sadly that she was likely to have to get used to this kind of treatment. She was after all, as she had told Remus, 'different'.

She made her way downstairs to the common room, where Remus was waiting for her. It took nearly half an hour for the two to reach the Great Hall, and when they arrived, breakfast was in full swing. They sat down and helped themselves to pancakes, as a skinny woman with spiky blue hair handed out timetables. These were greeted with varying degrees of glee and groans, especially among the first years. 

"Great," James Potter said, sitting opposite Lily. "Transfiguration first. My favourite – I'm the transfiguration king!"

"Yeah, right," drawled Sirius from three seats down, "bet you couldn't even turn a jam jar into a fly!"

"I can so, the bottle-to-bluebottle spell is a cinch! Easiest piece of transfiguration ever!"

"Go on, then!" jeered Sirius.

"Fine then, I will," James spat back, pointing his wand at the jar of marmalade in front of him. "MUSCA DOMESTICA!" he cried, and the jar began to shrink, emitting a loud buzzing noise, before it gave a little pop and became a fly. 

"See!" James said smugly.

Sirius sneered. "So what? My three-year-old cousin can do that. Here, have some bread and butter…"

Sirius whipped out his own wand, pointed it at the plate in front of him, and two slices of bread lifted into the air together, flapping slowly. 

"Or should I say, a bread-and-butter_fly?"_

Sirius now pointed his wand at James, and the awkward looking creature began to flap its 'wings' in earnest, flew quickly over to James and smashed itself into his face.

            James turned an interesting shade of purple and, Lily was intrigued to note, actually ground his teeth. She didn't think anyone actually did that. He stood up, wiping the butter from his face and glared at Sirius, who glared right back.

"Right, now you've asked for it," James growled, raising his wand and chanting ominously. The rest of the Gryffindors watched with bated breath as Sirius' nose grew and turned green. James had transfigured it into a leek.

            Sirius went quiet for a moment. He seemed impressed in spite of himself. He quickly snapped out of it and taunted, "is that the best you can do, Potter?"

            James smirked and replied in a sing-song voice, "anything you can do I can do better."

"Oh yeah? Try this one. DIGITUS PORKALIS!"

            The rest of the Gryffindors were in hysterics. In place of fingers, James Potter now had sausages.

***

There you go, chapter four. I was originally going to put the first week or so of lessons in this chapter too, but it would be too long. Now you've got the whole chapter, please review. I probably won't update for at least a fortnight, I'm really busy at the moment as you might have gathered. 

DANCE AS A LLAMA WOULD!!!

Thank-you, Thank-you very much.


	5. Fiery Problems

Tears of Flame 

Disclaimer – I don't own anything to do with Harry Potter, unfortunately. 

OK, here it is. The (far too) long awaited chapter 5! I'm sorry about the delay, I've been up to my eyebrows in coursework, and I was rather ill over Christmas. Hope this chapter is good enough for you to forgive me… Oh, and thanks for all your reviews and support. I probably wouldn't update nearly so often if I didn't have you lot making me feel guilty when I don't… Personal thank-yous are after the chapter, as I know it can be quite annoying when you have to scroll past them. Oh, and if anyone is looking for a beta reader, I'm always glad to help (and to get sneaky little previews!)  Anyhoo, on with the fic…

Chapter 5 – Fiery Problems

            Later, it was widely acknowledged that James had had it worst. Sirius may have looked sillier (or, to be blunt, completely and utterly ridiculous), but James had had to go through his first day of lessons unable to hold his wand, a quill, or anything else for that matter.

            By dinnertime, James was very disgruntled. In Charms that morning, he'd spent the entire lesson struggling to hold his wand while the rest of the class looked on sniggering. He dropped it several times, and towards the end of the lesson, managed to inadvertently turn his foot into lime jelly. The class had guffawed at this, especially ****ing Black, and the teacher wasn't much better. The Charms teacher, Professor Caravette, was young, tall and frizzy-haired, with an unfortunately large wart and a raucous laugh. At the sight of him and Black that morning, she'd burst into fits of giggles. As soon as she'd regained the use of her voice, she started to explain that she didn't know the counter charms, and if she did, she couldn't possibly perform them. She had told him with a glint in her eye and another fit of giggles that they'd have to wait for the spell to wear off. As it was first form work it shouldn't take more than twenty-four hours. James had been incredulous, and had stormed to his desk, slamming his bag onto it and muttering under his breath.

            History of Magic had been bearable, by comparison. The teacher, Professor Binns, hadn't even noticed the rather unorthodox appearance of two of his students. He had just launched into a deeply boring lecture in his monotone voice. A few of the most diligent students started to take notes, but within minutes they were sinking into a stupor along with the rest of the class. James, however, was grateful for the reprieve. 

            By lunchtime he was desperate. He'd given lunch a miss, for the first time in his life, and headed for the library in despair. He had planned to search for a counter-curse, but his clumsy 'fingers' made turning pages rather challenging. After half an hour of frustration, in which he'd managed to turn three pages, he gave up in disgust as the thought struck him that even if he found the counter-curse, which at this rate was extremely unlikely, he wouldn't be able to perform it as he couldn't even hold his wand. 

            He stormed of to Transfiguration, more annoyed than ever at his wasted lunchtime. The rest of the Gryffindors were already there, and sniggered more than ever as he walked in. James groaned. He had already gained infamy, but not for the reasons he had planned; he would be known as the boy with sausage-fingers for months to come. Black would pay for this. 

            James was dreading this lesson. He'd been looking forward to learning Transfiguration. It was, in his opinion, the most interesting kind of magic, and he had a natural knack with it. But now, he'd have to suffer through the first principles without wand or quill, he'd never catch up, and the teacher would bear a grudge against him for the next seven years.

            However, the teacher hadn't been at all as he'd expected. Ten minutes into the lesson a young woman with bright purple robes, several button badges with slogans such as 'Muggles have rights too' and 'Fight the Floo', a nose ring and very short, very blue hair. James recognised her as the woman who had handed out timetables that morning. 

            "Hi, I'm Minerva McGonagall, transfiguration professor and head of Gryffindor," she said, beaming at the students. "But I think that name is vile, so please call me Kitty." At these words she turned into a tabby cat with blue streaks on her forehead and a rather loud purr.

            As she turned back, the students gawped at her. James was entranced; he'd give anything to be able to do that. 

            "Well, now we've got the introductions out of the way, let's get to work." The weird professor's eyes took on a steely glint. "And make no mistake, in this lesson, you _will work. I expect a hundred and twenty percent effort from all of you, especially as you are Gryffindors. And that goes for all your lessons, not just mine. As for your behaviour, if I catch any misbehaviour, anything at all, you will be out of Hogwarts before you can turn around…"_

            The now thoroughly intimidated students quailed before her ferocious glare, and one plump boy in the front row gave out a squeak of fright. James made a mental note to stay out of this one's way – but she was grinning again now. McGonagall began to chuckle, tears of laughter pouring down her cheeks.

            "Ugh! I sounded just like my mother! Hope I don't end up like her, old stick in the mud… You should have seen your faces!" she gasped out finally. The class, now completely bemused, glanced nervously across the classroom at each other. "I'm not going to slaughter or expel you if you prank each other," her gaze lingered, like that of many teachers before her, on James and Sirius, "which is just as well, as you appeared to have made a start already. Good work, I like a class who can use their initiative. As you may have gathered, unless your pranks put yourselves or others in danger, I'm not such a hypocrite as to start chewing you out. I'm more than likely to be encouraging you all the way." She noticed the mischievous glint in the eyes of so many of her students and smiled. She could tell she was going to like her new Gryffindors. "You will be punished of course, but I will make it mild and in good humour if I can. The most important thing about your time here at Hogwarts, and in this class, is to have fun. On that note, instead of beginning with the standard match-to-needle switch, which I find mind-numbingly boring, let's have a go at the fish-to-firecracker."

            She promptly turned the large halibut on her desk into a purple firework, which chased the plump boy, Peter Pettigrew, around the room, spewing out silver sparks as it went.

            She quickly explained the theory behind the switch and the method you needed, and set the class to work.

            James struggled for several minutes with his floppy fingers, before giving up and banging his head on the desk, narrowly missing the trout he had been attempting to turn into a banger. The professor noticed, and made her way over to him. 

            "That was some neat transfiguration you did," she said, nodding her head in the direction of Sirius, who was currently attacking the poor boy sitting next to him with a salmon.

            James raised his eyebrows in surprise, before bursting out vehemently, "yeah, but he cursed my fingers, and now I can't even hold my wand, let alone try the damn spell."

            The professor – he couldn't bring himself to think of her as Kitty – gave his fingers a cursory examination.

            "Not a bad bit of transfiguration," was all she said. "Carry on, you'll manage. Where there's a will, there's a way."

            "How do you know?" he all but yelled at her, "I can barely use them!"  
            "How do I know?" she repeated slowly. Her eyes began to shine. "Actually, in my sixth year I got into a duel with my then best friend over a boy we both liked. In the end she cursed my arms off. I had to take final exams holding my wand between my toes. She regretted that curse afterwards, though. As soon as I had mastered magic using my toes, I cursed her legs off so she couldn't run, turned her hair into worms, made bubbles come out of her nose non-stop, elongated her tongue and tied her up with it. She was known as Legless Lynda for years afterwards. Hell, she's still known as Legless Lynda."

            James listened, enthralled. She was his kind of teacher! He thought back to her speech at the beginning of the lesson. Maybe she'd give him some ideas for revenge on Black.

            "So what else did you do when you were at school? That can't have been the only thing you did…"

            "Well," she began, "in second year I transfigured all the Slytherins' hats into cheese in the middle of summer. They didn't notice until it had melted and was flowing down their heads. And in fifth year, I gave this Slytherin scumbag Gustav Klimt a bunny tattoo on his forehead. He went mental and tried to – "

            But what Klimt had attempted to do to Kitty, James was not to discover, for at that moment there was a large explosion from the back of the class, and fireballs began hurling around the room, scorching the desks and setting parchment ablaze. 

            "Under your desks!" Kitty yelled. Most of the class obeyed, but one girl – the weird one from the boat, James noticed – stood staring at the desk where the fireballs were coming from. Kitty, now with a purple shimmer around her from her defensive shield, approached the devastation, attempting to pull the girl to safety, but she was too late. A fireball headed straight for the girl, who appeared astonishingly calm. She reached out and – James' eyes widened in shock – caught the fireball in her bare hands. Even Kitty McGonagall was staring open-mouthed at the girl. As James watched the girl, the fireball in her hands began to shrink, the fire seeping through her skin as if it was absorbed by her. Lightning leapt among her auburn curls, and James saw with shock that her eyes were glowing a deep, vibrant orange from among the bandages. The girl approached her desk, laid her hand on top of the still blazing firework, and the flame vanished as quickly as it had come. 

            The entire class stared as the girl withdrew her hand, took a deep breath and collapsed to the floor in sobs. One boy – the sandy-haired boy from the boat, what had he said his name was? – approached the shuddering girl and hugged her.

            Kitty had dismissed them after that, a worried look in her eyes. James had hung around the classroom for as long as he could, but eventually he couldn't delay his departure any more. He traipsed through the puzzling maze of corridors, searching for the Great Hall, his mind dwelling on the events of the lesson.

            But sitting down to dinner when he'd finally found the Hall, these thoughts were driven out of his mind by hatred for Black. Having missed both breakfast and lunch, James was ready to eat a horse, hooves and all. He sat down and reached for the nearest dish of cottage pie – but then he slowly drew his hands back again, staring at them. Warily, he looked down and fumbled with his knife and fork. He cursed loudly. It was no good. With his sausage-fingers, he couldn't manage a knife and fork. He was going to go hungry again. He opened his bag and wolfed down the few remaining sweets from the hoard he had bought on the train yesterday. It did little to satisfy his growling stomach. James hurried out of the Great Hall. He didn't want to have to look at all that food but not eat it. As he navigated his way back to Gryffindor Tower, he started to plan. Sirius Black was going to pay. 

***

            Kitty approached the girl, stupefied at what had just happened. Quickly, she dismissed the class twenty minutes early and waited until everyone but the crying girl and her friend had left, all whispering excitedly. 

            "Now, could you tell me your name please?" she said, kindly but firmly. The boy, seeing that the girl was still convulsed in sobs, answered for her. 

            "She's Lily, Lily Evans," he replied. "And I'm Remus Lupin." Kitty gave a slight gasp as she recognised the name. So he was the boy who…

            "OK then, Lily, could you please tell me what happened?"

            "I'm sorry, it was an accident, I didn't mean to, don't hurt me…" the poor girl said between sobs, flinching away from Kitty's gentle hand on her shoulder.

            "Of course I won't hurt you, Lily, you'll be fine. Now do you know what happened?"

            "No, I was just trying the spell, and I thought I'd done it because the fish turned into a roman candle, but instead of giving off sparks it started to spew out these huge fireballs. I'm really sorry, I don't know what happened. Will I be expelled?"

            "Of course not, Lily. It was an accident, if you even caused it at all, which is by no means certain. I don't understand what happened here. I think we'd better have a word with Professor Dumbledore."

***

            As Professor McGonagall described the scene in the Transfiguration lesson, Lily, looking at the floor, wondered what on earth had gone wrong. What was wrong with her? Both times she'd tried magic, first in Diagon Alley and then in the Transfiguration lesson, it had been an unmitigated disaster. Maybe Dumbledore was wrong and she didn't belong here after all. All she'd managed to do so far was destroy things. She didn't want to live like that. _Like her father…_

            Lily was so engrossed in these thoughts that she didn't hear Dumbledore as he started to address her. He gave a little cough, and her head snapped up to look at him. Dumbledore drew back a little in shock. Her eyes, now a tawny gold shot with green, still glowed.

            Recovering from the shock, Dumbledore cleared his throat and said "I hoped it wouldn't come to this, Lily. But your powers are completely out of control. This is normal for a witch your age," he added, seeing the consternation in Lily's eyes, "but with powers of your… er… magnitude, this is causing problems. I'm afraid that I will have to block your magic until you have developed enough control to keep them in check."

            Seeing her mouth open, he anticipated her question and added, "I am afraid you will not have developed sufficient control until the beginning of second year, at the very earliest."

            "What?! A whole year? And what do you mean, 'block' my magic? What are you going to do to me?" Lily was incensed.

            "Calm down, Lily. I'm sorry indeed to have to take this drastic measure, but unfortunately in order to prevent serious injury, I believe I must. To block your magic I will perform a very strong shield charm around your power. You will be unable, for the time the charm is in place, to perform magic at all. You must still attend lessons, and learn the theory of the spells so you find it easier to catch up when your ability is returned to you."

            "What? No spells at all? What's the point of being at magic school if I can't learn magic? And why me? Why am I so different from everyone else down there?" Lily voiced the question she'd been pondering since the Hogwarts Express, but once again, no answer came to her. 

            "I am sorry, Lily, but to tell you more at this stage of your development would be detrimental to your powers, as well as possibly putting you in danger. Rest assured that when you are ready, I will tell you why."

            Dumbledore then performed the charm. Lily still protested, but it seemed there was nothing she could do. The shield felt distinctly strange. She felt, not so much empty, but that she was reaching for something that was just out of reach, like a half-forgotten dream. She also felt detached, slightly out of sync with her surroundings.

            Dumbledore was relieved to see that her eyes had returned to their normal state, although she was startlingly pale. As Lily turned to leave looking distinctly disorientated, he tried to reassure her. 

            "Lily, my dear, remember that every cloud has a silver lining. This may turn out to be of great aid to you in the long run. Stay strong, Lily. Where there is a will, after all, there is a way."

***

            James needed revenge. And for that, he needed allies. He cast a critical eye around the Gryffindor common room for potential candidates. He bypassed Peter Pettigrew with a snort – far too wimpy and weak – and considered Ben Callahan and Ryan Crumpet. They were a distinct possibility, although as they were already best friends so probably wouldn't welcome him butting in. Juanita Callahan, Ben's twin, Rohanna Warren and Charlotte Llamar were giggling in the corner, but he dismissed them immediately. After all, they were _girls! Discouraged, he sank back into his armchair, but then his gaze fell on the pale boy from the boat sitting in the corner alone, reading a muggle book. Not ideal material, but he'd have to do. What was his name again? Ah, yes, Remus…_

***

            "Hey, Remus, isn't it? Do you want a game of chess or something?" The boy shrugged, and returned to his book. 

            "Come on, it'll be fun. I'd like to get to know you better, I don't really know anyone yet."

            Remus shrugged again. Lily still wasn't back, and he was a little worried. What if she had been expelled after all? He looked up at James. "Yeah, I guess it'll be OK…"

What's James planning? How's Lily going to cope in lessons without magic? When will James get rid of the sausage fingers? All will be revealed in the next chapter, which I'll hopefully post fairly soon…

By the way, I'm sorry if the PoV changes were confusing. That chapter didn't at all turn out as I had planned. The transfiguration lesson came out of nowhere, I hadn't planned the firework thing at all, the whole lesson was just going to be a couple of paragraphs long! I just can't argue with my muses, though. Hope you liked the chapter. Please review, even if you hated it, to say how I could improve it.

            Does anyone have any ideas for how James and Sirius could make friends? I've got a vague plan, but I'd appreciate any help I can get! If you have an idea, review and tell me, please.

Now, here are my thank yous:

hpfan1750: aww, thanks! I'm blushing…

arimel: two reviews! Wahoo! I've sorted the signed review thing, you can be as lazy as you like now…

kerry: yup, the llama thing is a joke with my friends too. It's just such a cool word! Go to frolic.org for words of wisdom from the naked dancing llama…

Tearful Spider: thanks! I like your pen name, by the way. Oh, and another review! Thanks, especially for all those exclamation marks, I'm glad you liked it so much! Hope it continues to live up to your expectations.

Lucia Dreams: thanks, glad you liked it

Musicizdibest: Wow! Four reviews! I must be great! Thanks so much, people like you keep me writing, and I hope this chapter is as good…

Friend to the Spiders: thanks, and I like your pen name as well. Basically, I like spiders full stop. I'd better shut up about now, I'm waffling.

Kerry: you again! Thanks, I'm sorry about the delay, I hope this makes up for it…

Disturbing tha Peace: hmmm, I'll have to think about making it L/R. Too early for ships now anyway, I don't really like fics where they pair up in first year.

Bekken: Thanks so much. I wasn't sure if the abuse scene was very good, as (thankfully) I have no personal experience…

Lady Lightning: Soon enough for you? Sorry, I know I took ages.

Koneko: Thanks for your compliments and your recommendations, hope you like the chapter

Axania chic: I'll try to continue this until it's finished. I hate it when you get involved in a story and then the author gives up half way through.

CasstheCurious: here's more for you. Hope it's as good!

Fireangel: thanks. They just seemed to fit together well.

Chaos: formerly Rini: Thanks, that really annoys be, the irrelevant little details thing. I'm so glad you like the story, and I'm sorry for apologising ;-)

And an extra special thanks to Chaos: formerly Rini and Disturbing tha Peace for putting me on their favourite lists! I never expected it for my first story, thank you so much.


	6. Trifle and Tears

Tears of Flame

Disclaimer – If you recognise it, it isn't mine…

I'm sorry you've all had to wait so long, I wrote myself into a plot hole, and have only just worked out how to get out of it. This chapter's quite short, and I'm sorry for that too. On a brighter note, while you're waiting for me to post the next chapter (*snaps on cheesy advertising smile*) why not check out A Right Royal Mix-up, my new fic… I'm not deserting you, promise! This is my favourite fic, ARRM is just easier to write… Don't kill me! Anyway, you've waited long enough, I'll let you actually read the chapter now…

Chapter 6 – Trifle and Tears

            By the Friday of her first week at Hogwarts, Lily was disheartened and lonely. She longed more than anything to return to Arabella, and to feel loved. She had never felt as alone as she did now, among the crowds of students. Even the singing that had always kept her going echoed dismally around the dark corridors before falling into silence. Her meagre hopes of friendship had been dashed. Since the Transfiguration debacle on her first day, Remus had started to spend more and more time with James, the guy who had had sausage fingers, and less and less time with her. Lily supposed she should have expected it – no eleven-year-old boy she knew spent time with a girl if he had any choice. A younger girl at that. But this didn't stop it hurting. Remus had seemed different – he'd accepted her, bandages and all. But he had only abandoned her.

            No one else talked to her, except to taunt her. The Gryffindor girls stuck there noses in the air and ignored her, but she heard them whispering about her when her back was turned. The boys weren't much better. Remus and James avoided her as much as possible. She thought that perhaps Remus felt guilty, but this was small consolation for his treatment of her. Sirius, who had paired up with the unlikely Peter Pettigrew (mainly as he was the only boy left) took every opportunity to annoy and torment her. Her name, due to Sirius's incessant teasing, was now irrevocably "Neffy" among the student population, after the Ancient Egyptian queen, Nefertiti. She had also fallen victim to several of his pranks – a hex that had made her write in Greek for a day, several snails in her bad, and the deeply unoriginal exploding quill. 

            The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs muttered about her in corridors. Even the teachers tried to avoid her gaze. Only the Slytherins were worse. Since Dumbledore had blocked her magic, she had been unable to master even the simplest spell, a fact that a particularly vindictive Slytherin by the name of Severus Snape had been quick to notice. Every time a Slytherin passed her, they insulted her background, ("Stinking Mudblood scum!") her looks, ("No wonder you have to cover your face – bet it'd petrify us!") and her, now nonexistent, magical talent ("Worthless Muggle, can't even send sparks at us"). Lily was outcast, and at her lowest ebb. Even with her father, she was able to fight, to defy. Now she couldn't even do that.

***

Remus felt a twinge of guilt as he scanned the common room and his gaze feel on Lily, curled up in the corner with a large novel. She had seemed so nice, and funny. But James was funny too, and he was a boy and wasn't considered 'weird'. He'd had great fun over the last week with James, pranking Sirius and playing exploding snap. But every time he saw Lily, his happiness deflated in the face of her misery. Remus sighed. If only they could all be friends… He grimaced as he remembered James's reaction to that particular suggestion. ("What? Friends with Neffy the freak? Have you gone loopy, Lupin?")

            He averted his gaze from Lily before she noticed him, and headed out of the portrait hole to meet James in the empty classroom they had claimed as their headquarters. On arrival, he was greeted by the sight of James bending over a bucket, tapping it with his wand and cackling at his own evilness.

            "OK, you're starting to scare me now," Remus said, advancing warily.

            "Oh, don't worry, it's just a little something for Neffy. I need something better for our next prank on Sirius."

            "Lily? You're going to pull a prank on Lily?"

            "No. We are."

            Remus started to stutter. "But… I mean, she's… she's not that bad…"

            James snorted sceptically. "Come on! She's a freak of the first order. Anyway, why are you defending her? Come and help me with the prank."

            Remus sighed, resigned. "All right. What are you planning to do to her?"

***

            To say Lily was not surprised when, upon entering the common room the next afternoon, she was dowsed form head to foot in trifle would be untrue; but the fact she was unfazed was clearly evident. Most of the occupants of the common room – apart from several seventh years, (who rolled their eyes at the immaturity of the first years) and Remus (who seemed to be avoiding her gaze) were rolling around on the floor in hysterics, James Potter most of all, she noticed. Lily restrained from rolling her eyes also; instead, she lifted a custard covered finger, dipped it into the cream that coated her hair and licked it.

            "Delicious," she remarked to no-one in particular, and she proceeded to a chair by the fire and opened her book, pausing every now and then for a bit more trifle.

            Remus couldn't quite suppress his smile at Lily's reaction, but James was incensed; how dare she actually enjoy his prank! She was supposed to run off in tears or something. He turned to Remus. "Right. This is war."

            Remus looked slightly alarmed. "Um…. What about Sirius?"

            "Oh yeah. Well, we can't surrender; we'll have to get him too."

            And so James embarked on a war on two fronts.

***

            After three days, the prank war had mixed results. On the one hand, the fight against Sirius was proceeding satisfactorily; they were embarrassed and elated by turns as they pranked and were counter-pranked. 

            However, Lily seemed to be unprankable. After three more failed pranks, James was seeing red. She had smiled at him – actually smiled! – after he'd turned her hair blue, and thanked him! She liked it! The spiders in her bed were another failure; she had ignored them, while the other Gryffindor girls had shrieked and hidden in the bathroom until they'd gone, at which Lily had laughed, and enjoyed the free run of her dormitory for the evening. He'd transfigured her steak into a vampire bat last night, but she'd been delighted, and had named it Rufus and let it sleep in her hair. That had been the last straw – it was a very difficult bit of transfiguration, and James had been sure it would work. Livid, James was now plotting his worst prank yet. He had been saving a prank of this magnitude for Sirius, but now lesser pranks had failed, he'd promoted Lily to public enemy number one – she deserved the most diabolical plots he could come up with.

            He'd get her this time.

***

            That evening, after dinner, James disappeared off the face of the earth – or so it seemed to Remus. He searched everywhere but there was no sign of him. Eventually, Remus gave up and slumped into a chair in the common room, resigned to spending the evening doing his potions homework.

***

            Meanwhile, James was in the library under his invisibility cloak – it wouldn't do for anyone to see him here, it'd ruin his reputation – avidly pouring through books in search of the perfect curse to use on Lily. Eventually he discovered a spell in "Diabolical Diseases – Curses and Cures for Ailments of the Anatomy". It was a very difficult hex – sixth year level – but James, determined to prank Lily, struggled with it all night. By four in the morning, he had managed it with some degree of success by practicing on his Quidditch figurines. He cackled evilly as he left the library, heading for the Gryffindor common room and Lily Evans's dorm…

***

            Remus awoke the next morning and noticed at once that it would probably be an eventful morning. For a start, James had clearly been up very late, because he was sprawled on his bed still wearing his robes. When Remus attempted to wake him up, James – normally a very early riser – merely rolled over and snored on. James slept through cold water, a fanfare and cockroaches down his pyjamas. He only awoke when suddenly, a loud, high scream of anguish came from the girls' dorms. Remus winced as James jerked into wakefulness. The scream was still going, on and on and on. 

            As everyone in Gryffindor Tower was rudely awakened, along with the portraits for four corridors in every direction, Remus turned to James, who was grinning in triumph.

            When he spoke, Remus's voice was cold enough to freeze Firewhisky. "What did you do?"

***

Oooh! Cliffy! I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist. What did James do to her? I'll update as soon as possible, but my mumsi has more or less banned me from reading or writing fanfiction ("You should be doing your coursework" or "You should be researching current affairs for your interview") so I have to update clandestinely (is that a word?) so I might be even longer than usual… Sorry!

Frigid billy goat!


	7. Got Your Goat

**Tears of Flame**

FINALLY!!! I'm so sorry this took so long – it's been half completed in my notebooks for several weeks. I've had a bad infection that's damaged my immune system, so I've been in bed for the last week, but I finally recovered enough to finish it last night. Add that to the crime of starting yet another new story (I'm sorry! I couldn't resist!) Pitch It Like Pendragon – please check it out if you have the time – and that makes for a very _very late chapter. I hope it's of sufficient quality to make it up to you!_

            Disclaimer – As much as I wish otherwise, it is clearly evident from the quality of my writing that I do NOT own Harry Potter or any related characters etc. 

            Well, I've kept you waiting long enough… here's the chapter!

**Chapter 7**

            When Lily woke up that morning she didn't notice anything unusual. She stretched and yawned, and opened her eyes. She stopped, and tried again. No, it was still dark. She lifted a hand to her face and felt her eyes. Definitely open. Then she realised what had happened. At once, the memories of her horrific injuries and slow healing sprang to mind. She had gone blind again.

With a sib if anguish she opened her mouth and screamed, trying to drown out the sense of terror and loss that threatened to overwhelm her.

***

            "You did what?!" Remus yelled. "I can't believe you'd do that! You're supposed to play pranks. They're supposed to be fun, a joke that everyone can laugh at. But this…" his voice had sunk to a deadly whisper. "This is just cruel."

            James, a little spooked by Remus's reaction, tried to laugh it off. "Cruel? Come off it, Rem, it's only Neffy."

            "Only Neffy?" If it was possible, Remus's voice got even colder. It was once again a formidable volume. "No she's not. She's a real person who's got real feelings and has probably suffered more than you could ever imagine. And her name is LILY!!!"

            James, a little peeved that Remus had tarnished the triumph of his prank, got defensive. 

            "Fine, then. If she's so great, go hang out with Lily. Oh, sorry, I mean NEFFY THE FREAK!!!"

            Remus, once again, went deathly quiet. "Yeah, I think I will, thanks. At least Lily has a heart, not just an ego. There are more important things than your stupid pride, James. Think about it."

            And with that, Remus turned and left the room, heading for the girls' dormitory. 

            He started up the stairs, but before he was even halfway up them, a dishevelled Lily appeared at the top of them, tears streaming down her cheeks, her body shaking. She started down the stairs, but stumbled and would have pitched head over heels down them if Remus hadn't leaped to catch her.

            "Lily…" he said as he hugged her, her tears soaking into his shoulder. "Lily, I'm so sorry. I never should have left you. I can't believe James would do that to you."

            "That's not what hurt," Lily sobbed. "It hurt that I thought you helped him." Remus opened his mouth to protest, but Lily carried on, "and it hurt because… well, when I got these," she indicated the bandages on her face, "I went blind for a while. It brought back all the memories, all the pain, all the fear when I thought I'd never see again." Remus hugged her even tighter, before putting an arm around her waist and helping her down the stairs to the Gryffindor common room. 

            "Do you have any idea how frightening this is? I feel so helpless. I can't do anything for myself. And I have no one to do anything for me. No one cares."

            Remus gripped her hands in his. "I care, Lily. I know what it's like to be different. I'm so sorry I left you, Lily. Will you forgive me? I'd really like to be friends again. Please, Lily."

            "What about Potter?" Lily spat out the name, angry despite her tears.

            "I don't want to be friends with anyone who could do something that spiteful to someone else, especially when they haven't done anything wrong."

            Lily wiped away the last remains of her tears and gave a watery smile. "Oh, Remie, I've missed you."

            Remus hugged her tightly. "I've missed you too, Lils. I've missed you too."

***

            Over the next few days, it became a normal sight to see Remus walking with Lily, an arm around her waist, guiding her to classrooms. Lily still couldn't see properly – the nurse, Madam Vervena, had cast the counter-curse, but because Lily's eyes were still damaged by the burns, they took a long time to recover from her second blinding. 

            Remus helped her as best he could, not only helping her to walk but also serving her food, reading out passages in text books so she could do her homework, and in the evenings just sitting in front of the fire with her, chatting away and eating chocolate frogs. 

            Lily, once over the initial shock, didn't mind being blind too much. She didn't do much in lessons anyway, blind or not, now that Dumbledore had blocked her magic. Remus helped her to find her way around Hogwarts and the pranks on her had stopped. She had been told how to get to the kitchens by Kitty McGonagall, normally a fiercely guarded secret from the students, so she didn't have to go to the Great Hall. The curse would wear off in a few days and meanwhile, she had become so close to Remus that she almost considered him a brother. For someone who had been sobbing her heart out in the common room less than a week ago, Lily was remarkably content. 

            James, on the other hand, was not. After the entertaining few minutes in the common room, Lily had reacted as disappointingly to this prank, his best effort, as she had to the others. James had been given a weeks worth of detention for cursing a fellow student, and had lost a friend because of the prank. Worse, he was now experiencing feelings of guilt. James wasn't used to this; his pranks were just a laugh, the victims deserved what they got. Or so he had thought. But Remus's parting words when he left the dormitory five days ago had been ringing in his head ever since. Had his prank been cruel? Was he so proud he caused other people suffering? These were the questions that occupied his mind as he slouched off to the dungeons for his third detention of the week. 

As soon as James entered the dungeon, he emitted a loud groan and almost turned around and walked straight back out again. Indeed, he would have done, if his groan hadn't attracted the attention of Professor O'Cairn, the grim-visaged Potions teacher and Deputy Headmaster. 

            The reason for James's distress was that the dungeon contained two of his least favourite people – a particularly malicious Slytherin by the name of Severus Snape, huddled over a simmering cauldron doing extra credit Potions homework and of course, the irrepressible Sirius Black, who was glowing a strange shade of green in the darkness of the dungeon. Intrigued, sure that none of his pranks had had that particular effect, James was about to ask what it was when Professor O'Cairn cleared his throat and began to explain their task. They had to catalogue Professor O'Cairn's potion ingredients, making a note of any that were running low, as well as hanging bunches of fresh herbs to dry and shredding the dried bunches. James was pleasantly surprised – this was much less work than polishing all those trophies, although the company left a lot to be desired. 

            When Professor O'Cairn left for his office, where a warm fire, a mug of cocoa and a large pile of marking were waiting for him, Sirius risked starting a muttered conversation with James. 

            "So, what are you here for, then?"

            "Oh, I cursed Neffy the freak. O'Cairn and McGonagall went mental, so I got a week of detention for making her go blind."

            "You made her _blind?!_

            "Yup. Nothing else seemed to work. Not that this prank could be called successful," James said morosely. "So, what did you do?"

            "I tried to booby trap Filch's office. It was going great, I planted a couple of Spell Spheres that would have given him a soprano voice and turned his hands into mopheads, and I was just levitating the luminous paint over the doorway when that blasted cat appeared and launched herself at me, hissing and spitting and scratching like a rabid gnome. So, of course, I moved my arms to protect my face, and the paint sort of… tipped, and so," he gave a shrug, "here I am. I suppose it could have been worse. Filch was threatening me with the rack."

            "Is that legal?"

            "Guess not, or Filch would have carried out his threat. Merlin knows he wanted to. Oh yeah, another good thing," a mischievous glint appeared in Sirius's eyes, "At least the deluge got Mrs Norris too."

            James's face split into a wide grin, until he and Sirius simultaneously realised they were supposed to be enemies, and turned back to the bundles of herbs. 

After another hour or so, the carefully compiled catalogue of ingredients was complete, and they only had the herbs to shred. Snape, too, had finished and was clearing away his ingredients, when a malevolent gleam appeared in his eyes. He carried his beaker of Kelpie Saliva over to the bench where the two Gryffindors were working. Seeing that the pair were busy, furiously chopping herbs, the evil glint became clearer and Snape, smirking, upended the beaker over the pile of parchment the Gryffindors had slaved over. 

            As the two turned, wide-eyed and glaring, Snape's smirk grew. "Sorry. I… slipped." Sneering with satisfaction, he withdrew into the shadows. 

            James and Sirius exchanged furious looks. "Why, you greasy little bastard!" Sirius yelled, and grabbed his wand. But James was quicker. 

With the fire of vengeance in his eyes, he flicked his wand in a complicated pattern and shrieked out, "Morphus Cabra!" Sirius stared, and began to chuckle. In the place of the smirking Slytherin stood a particularly murderous looking goat. Sirius added his own touch, turning the goat hot pink. The animal glared ferociously as James also started to laugh, but utterly failed in its attempt to intimidate them. It opened its mouth to attempt a threatening growl, but all that emerged was a loud "BAAAAHHH!"

This was too much for both James and Sirius. They collapsed to the floor in hysterical laughter, completely incapacitated. This continued for several minutes until the boys stopped abruptly as a cold voice rang out from behind them.

"And just _what_, exactly, happened here?" Professor O'Cairn had returned.

***

The goat episode in the dungeons earned both Sirius and James another two days of detention. They didn't mind – they used their time effectively, plotting a prank to get even with Snape as they cleaned the Owlery. 

The two were now firm friends, much to the astonishment of the rest of the school, who had watched them curse each other mercilessly only a few days before. The professors were especially glad that the rivalry was over – it was much easier to teach when your students weren't trying to transfigure each other into parrots. The Slytherins, on the other hand, were not pleased to see the enmity between Potter and Black disappear. As Sirius said, it had distracted them from the _important things; "We've been so busy pranking each other, we haven't played a single prank on the slimy Slytherins!" Now, however, they more than made up for lost time, aided and abetted, it was suspected, by Kitty McGonagall. The formidable skills and fertile imagination of James and Sirius had been fairly amazing when directed at each other. Now, combined, the pranks they came up with were incredible. The Slytherins, Snape in particular, feared for their own sanity, and began to develop some unusual phobias, most notably of fish, which Sirius seemed particularly fond of using in his pranks. _

Within a week, Sirius and James were so close they were almost brothers – a fact which rendered the incredulous members of the faculty, as well as their own house, speechless. The two boys were astonishingly alike; both talented wizards, from pureblood families, with a carefree attitude and a streak of mischief a mile wide. Perhaps that was why the rivalry had begun – the boys were just too similar.

Lily and Remus's friendship had also progressed in leaps and bounds. Although, at first, Lily had been reluctant to trust Remus after he had hurt her so badly, having to depend in him because of her damaged eyesight meant she had quickly regained her trust in him – and he tried as hard as he could to be worthy of her trust.

Unfortunately, instead of Lily being accepted by the other Gryffindors, her friendship with Remus had led to him being shunned by them along with her. The two were outcasts, considered inferior, fit only to be sniggered about behind their backs. Although the two were slightly saddened by this, neither really minded – after all, they both knew it could be worse.

OK, so that wasn't the world's best chapter, but I needed a bridging chapter so I can get on with the action! Hope you enjoyed the Snape goat – I enjoyed writing him! 

Oh yeah, could you _please suggest original prank ideas in your reviews – I'm planning a prank war, but I don't want to have to resort to changing the colours of people's hair, or dressing boys in girls clothes. YAWN!!! They get so tedious… Anyhoo, if you have any ideas, please tell me! I NEED them – I'm not evil enough to come up with them all on my own… (*evil glint and manic laugh shows that fire-bird is lying…) OK, I admit it. I'm just plain out – I seem to be fixated on transfiguring things into fish. I need something else! Please help me!_

And I don't mean mental help either. I enjoy being insane, thank-you very much…

Revenge of the rabid rutabaga farmer… HA HA HAAAAAAAA!!!

Sorry, sugar high showing… Better be off before you catch what I've got…


	8. Serious Revenge and Secrets Revealed

I am so sorry for the horrendous delay in updating this story. I just got so involved in ARRMU and PILP, but now they're (all but) over, I can concentrate on this fic again!

            I'm probably going to be able to update more regularly, too – I am currently attending a 6th form college with 2 and a half hours of prep time every night, and I normally have only an hour or so of prep. Therefore, I can use the rest of the time to work on my fics!

            I'd like to thank starborn, The Spiffy Meeper, shadow kitty, Damia, Quen of the Gypsi's, gum-addict, Caffeine and arukara for helping me think up all the pranks in this chapter…

            And now that's out of the way, on with the fic!

**Chapter 8 – Serious Revenge and Secrets Revealed**

When Lily's eyesight had recovered, the whispering about her stopped. Instead, people started insulting her to her face. It wasn't just Slytherins now, Ravenclaws and even Gryffindors taunted her too. She supposed they had held off while she was blind as some warped sort of sympathy.

After two weeks of this treatment, Lily was getting more than a little annoyed. In fact, that was a severe understatement; she was ready to cut out the tongue of the next person to insult her, and roast it slowly over the common room fire. Unfortunately, the next person to insult Lily was a sixth year Slytherin named Burdock Muldoon, whose features reminded one of an overweight rhinoceros, and whose bodyweight was about twelve times that of the slight Lily. Settling for a ferocious glare rather than decapitation, Lily stormed into the Gryffindor common room in a foul mood.

It was, perhaps, unfortunate for James and Sirius that they picked that particular moment for their daily teasing, as Lily was most definitely not in a tolerant frame of mind. As the now familiar insults rang in Lily's ears, she saw red and her wrath descended upon her tormentors. She whirled around to face them, fire in her eyes and an eerie kind of energy gathering around her.

James and Sirius cowered back slightly, as did the rest of the crowd now gathering around. This was Lily as they had never seen her before; powerful, awe-inspiring, supernatural. and above all, angry. Clearly making an effort to curb her temper, her voice came out deadly quiet, dripping with so much coldness that James and Sirius clearly believed her quite capable of murdering them where they stood.

"You have no idea what I've gone through. You are the very least of my problems. However, you are one I could well do without. LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE!"

Sirius, after standing gob-smacked for a few moments, recovered from the shock and, determined to show he wasn't frightened of her, said, "Yeah, whatever, Neffy."  
Lily's eyes flashed, and she became, if possible, even taller. Power flickered in the air around her and her eyes were glowing orange.

"That's it, Black! Watch your back!" she hissed, before she turned and left through the portrait hole, heading for the kitchens. Remus cast a furtive glance around the shell-shocked Gryffindors before chasing after his best friend.

As Lily left the common room, everyone released the breath they had been unknowingly holding.

"Well." Sirius broke the silence, but somehow couldn't think of anything to say.  
  
***  
  


By late that evening, when Lily had still failed to reappear, Sirius had recovered somewhat. However, talking over what had happened with James by the common room fire, he still appeared unnerved.

"I wonder what she meant by 'watch your back'? What's she planning? Do you reckon she really would murder us all in our beds?" He waited for James to answer.  
But James wasn't really listening. He was speculating about a\n earlier part of the 'conversation', if you could call it that. What had Lily said? 'You have no idea what I've gone through.' What HAD happened to Lily? Why was she covered in bandages? And what was that aura of power she had?

***  
  


The next morning, it became only too clear what Lily meant by 'watch your back'. Sirius woke up the next morning to find himself trussed up like a turkey and hanging from the ceiling. From the sound of James's shouts and struggles, he was in the same predicament. After several minutes cursing Lily and straining futilely against the ropes, the pair managed to wake up Remus, normally a very heavy sleeper, who proceeded to break down into hysterics. After half an hour or so, he recovered enough to gasp out, "She got you good!" and went to fetch a prefect.

The boys suffered all day. Lily had put itching powder in every robe they owned, hidden half of their textbooks in bizarre places (for example, inside the suits of armour, or balanced on the gargoyles). Her 'piece de resistance' was, however, the custard she had sneaked from the kitchen and filled James and Sirius's pointed hats with. Remus, a willing accomplice, had distracted the two at a vital moment by telling them that they were late for breakfast, which was true enough as they'd been a little 'tied up', and they had jammed them on without noticing… until it was too late.

The Slytherin students were, once again, granted a reprieve, as James and Sirius devoted their time to retaliation. The singing charm at supper backfired, as Lily's soulful rendition of "All by Myself" had most of the faculty, and a significant number of students in tears, not that they'd admit it – and merited a spontaneous round of applause. Even Lily, though, couldn't fail to be affected by her school bag developing fangs and trying to chew her hand off whenever she reached in for a textbook.

The prank war escalated, and as the number of injuries to innocent bystanders increased, the student body developed a great sense of caution and an almost infallible instinct for danger. James and Sirius were at a definite advantage, as they were purebloods with far more knowledge of magic than Remus and Lily, who was unable to perform the simplest of spells. Remus tried his best, excelling himself when he transfigured the pair's shoes into lobsters, meaning that the two ended up in the hospital wing overnight as the pincer marks healed. Lily, too, was surprisingly creative, even with only Muggle methods available to her. Simple but effective, she had swapped James's and Sirius's wands for normal sticks. The two boys were baffled as to why no spell would work for them, and it took them the best part of two days to figure out what had happened.

After a couple of weeks, the prank connoisseurs among the students had identified patterns in the styles of the rivals. Sirius and James went for quantity rather than quality. They generally performed more traditional pranks, perhaps because they'd been pranking since they were so young. Typically, they would curse everything Lily and Remus tried to eat to change into flobberworms, or gave them bright orange Mohawks. They tended to act on impulse, rather than plan carefully. This had caused them much embarrassment when two spontaneous curses had hit each other and ricocheted, giving the pair bread heads for the day.

Sirius's fish fetish also emerged once again. Lily and Remus spent a day with pins, were followed around by a swarm of flying fish, and even spent several hours unable to say anything other than, "Do you have any fish?"

Lily and Remus's pranks were more carefully planned and executed. Lily, being unable to practise magic, had become very adept at Magical Theory, and had helped Remus to master complex Morphing magic. The two boys had received a dose of their own medicine, as Remus modified their taste buds so that everything they ate tasted of rotten fish. He'd also had notable success with Cross-species Changes, and had given the pair bullfrog's tongues. This had been a source of great merriment to the rest of the students – every time an insect went near them, the boy's tongues would flicker out and ensnare it. The looks on the boys' faces showed that they did NOT welcome this instinctive behaviour, or enjoy the peculiar meal.

Lily's slightly warped sense of humour meant that her pranks were far more imaginative than her enemies'. In the space of a week, Sirius and James spent time being followed around by dancing stools, attacked by lime green flamingos and had spinach hurled at them by levitating leprechauns. 

At midnight on a Wednesday in November, James and Sirius were busy booby-trapping the deserted Gryffindor common room to rain snails down onto Lily and Remus (and anyone else who happened to get in the way) when they noticed the pair in question walk into the room, deep in conversation. They hastily hid the snails, anxious to avoid being discovered. When he knew that the pair hadn't noticed them, James suggested that they listen in on what the two were saying. 

"After all," he reasoned, "it's probably their plan of revenge. You know what they say, forewarned is forearmed…"

But on the other side of the room, the conversation was taking a very different turn to what the boys had expected…

***

Lily sat next to the dying embers of the common room fire. Beside her, Remus was curled up, chatting with her. She smiled sleepily. She finally felt like she belonged. 

It seemed that Remus was thinking along the same lines.

"Lils?" he said. "D'you remember the day we met?"

Lily rolled her eyes and answered, "of course, Rem. How could I forget?"

Ignoring her sarcasm, Remus continued seriously. "Remember that I told you I was different too?"

Lily, sobering, nodded.

"Well, you're my best friend, and I think you deserve to know why. You deserve to have a choice whether to be my friend, knowing the truth."

Lily merely nodded, recognising that this was hard for Remus, and that interrupting him would only destroy his nerve.

            "Well, the truth is… I'm a werewolf."

            Lily's shocked gasp helped to drown out the sounds of disbelief made by their two hidden spectators.

            "Oh, Rem. I'm sorry. You must've had it tough."

            "You still want to be my friend?" Remus sounded hopeful and surprised. 

            "Of course! You can't get rid of me that easily. Besides, I'm hardly what you could call normal."

            "Thanks, Lils." The two friends grinned at each other, before Lily sighed and turned away.

            "Since we're doing the girly secret-sharing thing, I suppose I better tell you about these." She gestured at the bandages despondently. 

            "Lils, you don't have to."

            She shushed him impatiently. "Be quiet and listen. I need to do this."

            And so she spilled out the tale of her mum's abandonment, the abuse from her father and her horrific injuries. By the end of it she was both in tears and in Remus's arms, as he rocked her gently, soothing her. The pair remained by the fire, eventually drifting off to sleep when the sobs of emotion had ebbed.

***

            James and Sirius, behind one of the sofas, stared at each other in shock, hardly believing two people of their own age could have gone through so much. Guilt began to gnaw at James's stomach for the way he had treated the pair. He wasn't sure he could cope with half the problems either had endured.

            Sirius, gobsmacked, turned to him, voicing the only coherent though in his head.

            "Oh, sweet Merlin!"

  
  
  



	9. Raising The White Flag

Well, here we go – chapter 9. A little shorter than usual, but I haven't had much time recently – this September I started at the Army's sixth form college, so I'm pretty much working at something or other without a break from 6.30 to 9.30 without a break six days a week. 

I'm not really all that happy with how this chapter worked out, so if you have any suggestions for improvements I'd be glad to hear them!

Anyway, here goes…

****

Chapter 9 – Raising the White Flag 

            "No, we can't do that! It's immoral!"

            "What else can we do? You heard! He's a werewolf!"

            "I know…"

            "And her! It's the only thing we can do, you know that, right?"

            "I suppose it's for the best. It just seems so… wrong…"

***

            The next day, Lily and Remus were in the middle of their History of Magic homework, deeply immersed in several large and tedious tomes in the library, when they were surprised by a tentative cough from behind them.

            Lily turned, about to snap at whoever _dared_ to interrupt her homework, but merely stared open-mouthed at an awkward looking Sirius, with James, even more embarrassed, standing behind him. 

            Still short-tempered from the interruption, as soon as Lily had regained the power of speech, she snarled out, "What do _you_ want?"

            Sirius stammered out, "Errr… Well, you see, Neffy," James elbowed him sharply, "I mean, Lily. Well, it's kinda like this. We, um, sorta…" Lily's eyes narrowed dangerously. Seeing her impatience, Sirius hurriedly got to the point. "Well, we want a truce."

            This tore Remus's attention away from the no doubt gripping account of the Warlocks Convention of 1603. "You're surrendering to us?!" he asked incredulously.

            "No!" Sirius shouted emphatically. After a warning from Madam Pince to keep the noise down, and another elbow to the stomach from James, Sirius had managed to school his features into a slightly painful looking smile. "That is to say, we'd prefer to refer to it as a voluntary withdrawal, leaving the war as a draw."

            Lily snorted. "And why should we agree? We're clearly better, we've got you running scared. Why should we concede our advantage?"

            "You… you… you…" Sirius couldn't seem to think of a vile enough epithet to throw at Lily.

            James clapped a hand over Sirius's mouth and stepped around him. "We'd beg to differ. We're not 'running scared', as you put it."

            "Oh?" Lily raised her eyebrows quizzically.

            "Yeah," said Sirius, breaking free of James's restraining hands. "We're withdrawing for purely humanitarian reasons."

            "Oh?" Lily asked again, as her smirk became slightly predatory. "And what reasons would those be?"

            James and Sirius exchanged nervous glances, James mentally berating Sirius for his big mouth. "Uh… we'd prefer not to divulge them, if it's all the same."

            "But how do we know you're telling the truth, that you're not just too scared, if we don't know why you're withdrawing?"

            "Um… you could take it on trust?" James said, hopefully.

            "I think not." His face fell. "Sorry, boys, but without a valid reason, I can't accept your withdrawal. Continue, at your peril, or surrender unconditionally."

            "We have a valid reason! We just can't tell you…" James said desperately.

            "Good day, boys," she said, turning back to her textbook.

            James and Sirius exchanged glances. "But James!" Sirius pleaded. "Have you no pride?" James glared steely eyed at him. "Okay, okay. But I hope you realise I'm doing this under protest. We'll never live this down."

            Lily turned back from her homework as the two boys shuffled reluctantly towards her, the light of triumph in her eyes, and an air of dejection surrounding the pair.

            Searching Lily's eyes for a sign that she'd relent, but finding none, James turned to Sirius, who was stubbornly keeping his mouth shut, kicked him in the shin, then turned back. When the boys finally did speak, they spoke in unison.

            "We surrender."

***

            After the furore of the prank war, Lily and Remus were almost grateful to slip unnoticed into the background. After seeing just what the pair were capable of, most of the students trod carefully around them. As a result, Lily and Remus seemed to have become invisible. There was no open hostility anymore, but nothing else either. 

            They didn't really care. Both were intensely private people, and they had each other to rely on. What was more noticeable to the pair, and also more unexplainable, was the complete absence of James and Sirius in their lives. At first, Lily thought the pair were avoiding them from embarrassment at their defeat in the prank war, but as the weeks went by, this seemed less and less likely, especially as she noticed that their departure from a room she or Remus had just entered was always precluded by an exchange of knowing, if uncomfortable, looks.

            Lily pondered this during a particularly dull History of Magic lesson. What did they know? It couldn't be that… She shook her head to try and get rid of the thought. Only Remus knew, just like she was the only student to know his secret. But all the same, her mind returned to the conversation several weeks ago… "humanitarian reasons…"

***

            An excited buzz was evident in the festively decorated Gryffindor common room. Christmas was fast approaching, and the holiday spirit had affected everyone.

            Well, nearly everyone.

            Lily and Remus spent as little time as they could in the common room these days, preferring the musty darkness of the library or the quiet solitude of the Astronomy Tower. Both children, estranged from their families, particularly felt the pang of it as Christmas, and therefore preferred the festive season to be as short as possible.

            Thus it was that Lily groaned as she entered Gryffindor Tower one Thursday in early December. There seemed to be an extra spring in the steps of the occupants, and a little extra Christmas magic in the air. 

            Lily almost turned and left immediately, but thought better of it. Instead she faced the nearest student, a meek-looking second year boy, and snapped, "What, precisely, has made everyone so particularly cheerful this fine, fine day?"

            The boy, cowering back slightly from the younger girl, raised a trembling finger and pointed across the room to a noticeboard, which, now Lily came to notice, had an unusually large number of people clustered around it. She impatiently shoved her way to the front, dragging Remus with her. 

            The reason for the excited whispering soon became apparent, and Lily was rather disappointed. She'd expected something far more interesting, and preferably dangerous.

            Pinned on the board was a new poster, informing the students of a non-magical talent contest due to take place just before the Christmas holiday. 

            Lily snorted in disgust, and turned to push her way back through the crowd, but Remus, his hand still in hers, held her back.

            "Wow, Lily! That looks just up your street! Why don't you enter? You're an amazing singer!"

            Lily stared at him in disbelief. "You _are_ joking, aren't you, Rem? As if I don't get enough of the wrong sort of attention as it is! Anyway, I don't like to sing to people – it's private."

            "But maybe people will realise how great you are! Anyway, you sang to me."

            "That's different. You're my best friend, But in front of this lot," Lily shuddered dramatically, "No way am I singing. Just drop it, Rem."

            Remus opened his mouth to continue the discussion, but thought better of it. It didn't stop him casting speculative glances at the poster for the rest of the evening, however.

***

            As the prank war faded into the dim and distant past, several of the Slytherins grew bolder, and once again began to torment Lily. It was subtle at first, a snide word or two, or a foot stuck out to trip her, but things reached a head one Sunday, a fortnight before the end of term.

            Lily was walking back from the library, having finally finished her Charms theory. She was lost in a daydream, when a sneering voice from behind her brought her back to reality with a jolt. 

            "Well, well, well. If it isn't Neffy the freak."

            Lily, trying to avoid another confrontation, ignored them and carried on walking. But the malicious voice came again.

            "Oh, Neffy, don't go. We haven't even started yet."


	10. Exile

Well, it's been a while! I've been hideously busy, and struggling with writer's block. It's no excuse, I know. I thought I'd better give my readers a heads up that I'm still alive, still writing, and still intending to finish this fic!

That, and give you a new chapter…

Disclaimer – the characters aren't mine. They are, in case you can't guess, JK's. Oh, and the song isn't mine either. It was written by Phil Knightley, with a few tweaks by Kate Rusby. It's called Exile, by the way, hence the chapter title. 

**Chapter 10 - Exile**

            Remus was worried. Very worried. He threw himself into an armchair by the dying embers of the common room fire, but no sooner had he sat down than he was up again, pacing the now long-deserted room restlessly. 

            He paused by the window, drumming his fingers on the windowsill. It was gone two in the morning. Where on earth could Lily have got to? She should have been back from the library hours ago.

            He glanced out of the window, flinching slightly as he saw the waxing moon. It was nearly full, casting silvery shadows across the lawn and highlighting the shimmering lake. The night was mild and misty and breathtakingly beautiful, so much so that Remus was distracted from his anxiety. The wide lawns were coated with sugar-spun frost, and the forest faded into the night, dark and intriguing. Remus's eyes were drawn inexorably to the Whomping Willow silhouetted against the starry sky, until he tore his gaze away, scanning the scene. Suddenly a coppery glint caught his eye down by the lake – the moonlight reflecting off something there. He leaned out of the window to get a better look.

            "Lily!"

            He had discerned a figure beneath shining red hair – the shade belonging to his best friend. 

            "Lily!"

            He raced out of the portrait hole, and made his way as quickly and quietly as he could out into the grounds and across the lawns. Even Pringle the caretaker seemed to have gone to bed as he didn't see a soul.

            Approaching the lake, he slowed. About to call out, he stopped as the sound of soft singing reached his ears. 

_I feel a shadow passing over me_

_It could stay for evermore_

_Like a wave I'm breaking far at sea_

_And there's no one to hear the roar_

_And the days are drifting into seasons_

_They're the hardest I have known_

_What if I could cross a hundred borders?_

_There's no going home_

_No going home_

The melody Lily was singing was so impenetrably sad, that almost against his will he could feel his eyes tear up, and it was all he could do to keep stood up and silent.

_And when the thunder breaks the empty skies_

_I will be there_

_No one to hold you when the storm birds fly_

_Is there no one left to care?_

_I'm searching rumours with my hollow plans_

_When all I wanted is what's mine_

A shudder ran through Remus's soul with every note. The words echoed in his head, and without quite knowing why, he burst into tears.

_I'm lost and lonely in this foreign land_

_I'm left too far behind the lines_

_I want to tear down these walls between us_

_I can't do it on my own_

_A million spaces in the world to fill_

_There's a generation waiting still_

_We've got year after year to kill_

_But there's no going home_

_No going home_

Remus sniffed hard, tears streaming down his face, as Lily's song dissolved into sobs. Her deep sadness had wrenched on his heart strings, as though it were his own pain she sang of.

Lily, possibly startled by some sound he had made, turned and looked around, petrified, for whoever was going to catch her. Remus stepped out from behind a tree, approached her and wrapped his arms around her.

            "Oh, Lil. That was beautiful. Incredibly sad, but beautiful."

            Lily turned towards him and gave a weak, watery smile.

            It was then that he noticed that her arms were covered with cuts and bruises and even, looking closer, with nasty looking boils. There was a streak of blood marring the white bandages on Lily's face.

            "Lily, what happened? What are you doing here?"

            Lily sighed, wiped her eyes, and said, "Bloody Slytherins, that's what happened."

            She shivered, and Remus suddenly realised how cold she was.

            "Come on, Lil. Let's get you indoors. Tell me about it when we get back to the common room."

            Lily nodded wearily, and turned back towards the castle. She winced in pain as she started to walk, and Remus saw that she was limping heavily. 

            "Bloody hell! They're gonna regret this, Lil," Remus promised earnestly, a slightly bloodthirsty glint in his eyes. Lily raised her eyebrows and gave a sad shrug, expressing without words her incredulity at any such thing.

            "Come on, you'd better lean on me, or it'll be dawn before we make it back to the tower."

***

            The figure, lurking by the lake, watched the pair leave with a fond smile. His eyes twinkled mischievously, although a left over tear still clung to the lashes, while his quick brain pondered the options he had and speedily formulated a plam. The mild smile became a grin, as the twinkling eyes lit up. This could be interesting…

***

            Lily and Remus had finally made it back to Gryffindor tower. As soon as they were through the portrait hole, Lily dropped Remus's arm as if it burnt her, and stumbled towards the stairs to the girls' dorms.

            "Night, Rem. I'll see you at breakfast, OK?"

            She had almost made it to the stairs when Remus's pleading voice called her back.

            "Lily…"

            Sighing, she turned to face the inevitable.

            "What happened? I was so worried."

            "OK, here goes." Lily opened her mouth but couldn't quite get the words out. She pulled herself together, curled up in a chair beside the fire and started again.

            "I guess it was my own stupid fault. I was coming back from the library – I wasn't paying attention. All of a sudden I was surrounded. I got in a few good insults, but they got really livid and brought out their wands. I decided to make myself scarce – I almost made it, with only a Furnunculus curse – " she waved a hand towards the boils " – but then one of them got me with a bungled tripping jinx – hence the limp. They caught up, and started gloating, so I saw red and punched one of them. Merlin, Rem – you should have seen his face – I've never seen anyone so shocked! But then – " Lily gave a shudder " – they started on me. I gave as good as I got for a while – one of them has a black eye, and another a broken nose, I shouldn't wonder. Then the memories started to get too much. It was so like Dad. And then I got dizzy and confused, and I thought it really was Dad. Next thing I know I woke up in a bloody heap in a deserted corridor. I think I must've blacked out. I couldn't face a common room full of smug Gryffindors in that state, so I just went out to think things over by the lake. I guess I just… lost track of time. I'm sorry, Remie."

            Remus waved away her apology. "But who was it? Who bloody did this to you, Lils?"

            "Dunno. They covered their faces. By size there was a couple of fifth or sixth  years, and maybe seven younger students. But one of them… the voice… I would've sworn it was Snape's…"

***

Two weeks later, and it was very nearly the end of term. Lily couldn't wait – she was looking forward to spending the holidays with Arabella. That, and the fact she desperately wanted to escape the horrendous festive spirit that had gripped the castle – even the portraits had taken up carol singing! But before the desirable event took place, she had one more ordeal to cope with. The Christmas talent contest.

***

            Festive gaiety reigned in the Gryffindor common room… except for in one corner.

            "Rem, do I have to go?"

            Remus gave a sigh. They'd been through this so many times. 

            "Please, Remie, don't make me go. What'll I miss? A few third years massacring 'Eternal Flame' and Hufflepuffs telling bad jokes."

            "Lily, we've been over this. It's compulsory. You have to go. And anyway, it might be fun."

            "Fun? Remus, you really are optimistic to the point of being delusional."

            "Aww! You know you love me."

***

            Lily winced and clapped unenthusiastically as a group of sixth year Slytherins finished a staggeringly abysmal rendition of 'Try a Little Tenderness'.

            "I really should have brought earplugs," she remarked in an undertone to Remus.

            "Sorry, what did you say? I seem to have gone temporarily deaf."

            "It's alright for some. Wish I was bloody deaf."

            The MC, Head Girl Rebecca Bamford, introduced the next act, a dance routine by a Hufflepuff bimbo of the name Alexandra Ingham.

            "Ugh, way too much flesh, there," Lily remarked, shielding her eyes.

            This show seemed to have been designed to show just how talentless the Hogwarts students were. Admittedly, not all the acts were terrible – just the vast majority. One of the Ravenclaw fourth years, Adam Stokes, was a wicked guitar player, there had been several very funny skits and sketches, and one of the Gryffindor second years, Nessa Hobbs, was a truly incredible gymnast. However, these redeeming features had not stopped the evening being an excrutiatingly painful experience, especially for the ears.

            Lily turned back to the stage as Alex trooped off to scattered applause.

            "And now," Rebecca was saying, "I'd like to welcome our final act of the evening." _At last! thought Lily, as relief washed over her._

            "The sensational singing stylings of Miss Lily Evans…"

            Quick as a flash the relief had vanished, replaced by a dozen eels in her stomach, a very dry mouth and a rising sensation of horror.

            "Miss Lily Evans, would you come up to the stage, please…"

There you go! I hope it was worth the wait. I promise not to take so long to update next time…

How'd you guys like the singing scene? I really struggled with it, and it still doesn't seem quite right. Please suggest any improvements you would like. Oh, and any suggestions for what Lily could sing? I have something in mind, but again, it's not quite right…

Hope y'all had a good Christmas, and good luck for the new year – my resolution is to update more often – hope you're all grateful!


	11. Scream

Well, here we go – chapter eleven. Slightly short, but it's an update! Sorry for any delay in posting, but I'm back at college now, and in addition to my lessons, CCF, rugby, judo, choir, band, literary club, rowing, music lessons and everything else I do normally, I'm also involved in not one, but two drama productions – Moulin Rouge and Oliver. I'm becoming convinced that I have suicidal tendencies – I seem to be determined to work myself to death! 

It's crazy here at the moment. In the last week, our Head of House (like a head boy, but for only one house) was suspended – for smoking something dubious, obtained from a Chinese herbalist in Newcastle, two of our prefects were suspended after having a punch-up (both girls btw), and the entire senior year got completely drunk. Oh, and it snowed!

Oh, my god, I'm rambling. You lot really aren't interested in that. So let's got on with what you are interested in… the chapter!

****

Chapter 11 - Scream 

Lily fixed Remus with an absolutely ferocious glare. 

"How could you? How could you, Rem? I trusted you."

With that, she whirled on her heel, and stomped towards the stage, the rest of the school staring open-mouthed at her, murmuring quietly. 

            She turned her death glare onto Rebecca as she handed over the microphone. He voice was hard and soft as she introduced herself.

            "Here's a song that might benefit some of you…" She surveyed the Great Hall contemptuously. "Be who you are. Don't lie about something that important." She turned her gaze to Remus, and he was struck by the degree of pain there. But it flickered and vanished as soon as it had come, and Lily began to sing, her voice laced with hurt.

_Say the first words, take the first steps_

_Be like a child again_

_Don't be scared anymore_

_Don't be scared at all_

It was obvious to everyone the point at which Lily began to lose her anger in the music. Her voice softened, and a curious kind of longing entered it. The school looked shocked as Lily's voice rang clearly, and awed whispers broke out. None had heard anything quite like it before.

_And if you feel like falling _

_I will be there_

_I'll catch you if I'm strong enough_

_Try not to let you fall_

Remus felt the hairs down the back of his neck begin to prickle. Lily's eyes, which had flickered shut, shot open as her voice gained momentum.

_You could scream_

_I know you could_

_You could scream at the top of your voice_

_Would it do any good?_

_You could scream_

_Make your feelings plain_

_Scream, for the right for once in your life_

To be you, and not need to explain 

The prickling sensation had gotten worse. Remus could see, glancing around the room, that he was not the only person to be feeling it. A strange kind of tension was building up, a power like nothing he'd felt before. 

_And do you see the credits roll_

_Before your eyes?_

_All the people who've made you part of_

_Every part of their own lives_

And behind the feeling of power, Remus could feel something deeper. Anger, sorrow, longing, pain, and curiously, peace. He looked up at Lily, shocked. Could he be feeling what she was?

_And what is it you fear?_

_And do you even know?_

_All the things you should have done_

_Well it's time to let them go_

The feeling of power had grown worse and worse – it wasn't outside him, pushing at him anymore. It was actually inside his head. He could feel the pressure, but there was no pain, just the power laced with emotion and a strange compulsion that was gaining strength as Lily's song swelled. 

_You could scream_

_I know you could_

_You could scream at the top of your voice_

_Would it do any good?_

_You could scream_

_Make your feelings plain_

_Scream, for the right for once in your life_

To be you, and not need to explain 

And then the emotions battering his senses seemed to unravel themselves. He looked up at Lily and understood. He understood the song she was singing, the meaning behind the words, and to a degree he understood Lily. He was linked in a strangely intimate way, him and the song and Lily… But the power, the power was growing and growing and the compulsion was nearly overwhelming. 

_Make my head ring_

_With what it is you want to be_

_Make my head ring_

_With what it is you need_

_Go ahead and scream_

_Go ahead and scream_

_Please just scream_

And they did. Suddenly the compulsion in Remus's mind became impossible to resist, and he opened his mouth and… well, howled. His mind was blank of all else, he could do nothing but scream. And, although Remus was not in any state to notice, all around him the same thing had happened to every student watching, and even the teachers – all that is, but Dumbledore, who sat there with a slightly bemused expression on his faintly smiling face. Noise filled the Great Hall, screams of emotion – of anguish or exultation and everything in between, and for one short period of time, everyone there was totally honest, Masks were stripped away, and they poured their true self into the screaming. Lily didn't seem to notice.

            Her eyes had flickered shut once again. Her voice faded and became softer as she sang almost to herself.

_You could scream_

_I know you could_

_You could scream_

_I know you should_

Lily's song ended, and the Great Hall rang with silence, as the screaming stopped as swiftly as it had started. No one moved, as they all gawped in shock and something akin to fear at the slight girl with the bandaged face and frighteningly intense eyes who stood on stage. She seemed strangely vulnerable at that moment, and somehow diminished. 

Lily slowly turned to face Dumbledore, who seemed the only person in the room still capable of speech. His eyes twinkled brightly as he stood up and began to clap, the sound echoing strangely in the silent room. No one made a move to join in, still staring mutely at Lily. 

Grinning, Dumbledore stopped his applause only to say, "Well, Miss Evans. After that most… interesting display, I feel that the only choice for winner of our talent contest is you. And my dear…" he lowered his voice, so only Lily could hear, "I'll need to see you in my office. Immediately."

Well, I hope you enjoyed that. The song isn't mine, it was written by a brilliant folksy blues singer, Amy Wadge. It's called, fairly obviously, Scream. I'll try to update fairly soon, but I can't make any promises…

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it'll annoy enough people to be worth the effort…

Herm Allbright__


	12. Silver Lining

Well, another chapter done and dusted! Hope you enjoy…

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Chapter 12 – Silver Lining 

            "Merlin, what the heck just happened?" Sirius said in shock.

            "No idea. That was the weirdest thing I've ever felt. Seriously spooky." James seemed strangely distracted as he replied.

            "Well, everything about Neffy is seriously weird. I'm not entirely convinced she's human."

            James snapped back to himself. "Well, I'm not entirely sure you're human, but it's not polite to just come out and say it like that. But I know what you mean. There's definitely more to Lily Evans than meets the eye."

***

            Back in his office, Dumbledore surveyed Lily carefully over his half moon glasses. She looked away, feeling vaguely guilty.

            "I'm sorry about all the noise, sir," she said, more to fill the silence than anything else.

            "Not to worry, my dear Miss Evans. My ears stopped ringing a full ten minutes ago." He smiled cheerfully. "It appears, Miss Evans, that we have unearthed hidden depths."

            Lily, glad the subject had finally been broached, burst forth with a torrent of questions.

            "Professor, what was that? It felt really weird but I didn't mean to, honestly. How could I have done that without meaning to? I thought I couldn't do magic now. You haven't given it back, have you?"

            "My dear, slow down before you choke on your own questions. I will get to them, in time. Lily, I believe that you are a song mage."

            Dumbledore held up his hand as a pre-emptive strike against Lily's next flood of questions. 

            "That means that you are able to communicate your emotions through song, and – more importantly – to change your surroundings by this."

            "Wow! That's really cool! Is it rare?"

            "Oh, no, my dear. Approximately half your classmates will have a similar ability. Even Muggles have it, you know. Oh, not all will have Song Magery perhaps, but there are other forms. Art, Dance, Writing, Drama, Music – there are even a few people with Sport Magery. The magic connects, you see, with a particular talent. What was unusual about what you just did was the sheer scale. Most mages of this kind can share their emotion with a handful of people, normally close friends or family, and many never get close to being able to manipulate anything with this magic. You managed not only to share your emotions with the entire school, but also to manipulate their own emotions and – even more remarkably – their actions."

            "So why…" Again Dumbledore stopped her. "You want to know why you have so much power?"

            Lily nodded, blushing.

            "There is a simple, and to by frank, rather mundane explanation. Your power has no other outlet. Muggles have no innate magical power, so they can do little with Magery – they have the ability, but not enough power to pull it off properly. Other witches and wizards are tapping off power constantly, in spells and enchantments. Excess power is used up before it can build up to any extent. Your power, however, is trapped, simmering beneath the surface, building its strength, gaining momentum until it is so energised it just has to go somewhere, do something. You sing, and whomph! Out it gushes!"

            "So I can't do that all the time?" Lily's face fell. "It's just, I was wondering, if I could use this Song Magery to do the lessons properly. I mean, to be able to do spells and things."

            "Miss Evans, magic of this kind is far more difficult to use than ordinary magic, if the term can ever truly be applied. Very few people are Magery Adepts, and even they usually take it up as a post-graduate course of study." Lily, now completely disheartened, gave a resigned half-smile. "However, there are exceptions to every rule and as you, Miss Evans, have proved yourself an exception to practically every rule you've come into contact with so far, maybe this one will be no different. You are welcome to try and, I am sure, determined enough to succeed. I will inform the staff, although," his eyes twinkled as he recalled the recent scene in the Great Hall, "many of them may have an inkling already."

            Lily smiled, more sincerely this time, and turned to go.

            "Miss Evans? Do not be too hard on your friend. It was he who put your name forward. Mr Lupin is a true friend, and worthy of your trust."

            Lily was flabbergasted. "Not Rem? Then who…"

            Lily's astonishment grew even greater as she observed the headmaster… blushing?

            "Miss Evans, I must confess it was I who entered your name. On one of my midnight strolls, I overheard Mr Lupin and yourself out by the lake. Your song was absolutely exquisite, if you'll forgive my saying so."

            "But… why would you enter me?"

            Professor Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he replied. "I am merely an old man, my dear, seeking to aid you in your search for the elusive silver lining. That, and I also couldn't resist the opportunity for an encore, after listening to your last performance."

***

            Lily was seriously disappointed that the end of term was upon them, and she couldn't start experimenting with Song Magery. She was short-tempered and waspish as the students packed and on the journey home, snapping sarcastically at anyone who dared to question her about what had happened, congratulate her on her win or even those who just stared as she passed.

            Only Remus, who had accepted Lily's grovelling apologies for her suspicions of duplicity, was spared this treatment. Remus disliked spending too much time with his family, and regretted the end of term even more than Lily did. Since he had been bitten, he had become rather estranged and detached from his family, as if they were carefully extricating themselves from the association, slowly but surely. Holidays – especially Christmas – were always slightly depressing. 

            Lily, despite her eagerness to begin studying Magery, was looking forward to Christmas. She was spending it with Arabella, her first proper Christmas since her mother had left when Lily was four. 

            Arabella was waiting on the platform as the Hogwarts Express pulled up. She saw Lily pick her way through the crowds towards her, dragging a pale boy with serious grey eyes along behind her – evidently the famous Remus Lupin she'd read so much about in Lily's letters. She was slightly worried about the cold manner in which the rest of the students treated Lily, but was broken out of her musings on the subject by Lily's enthusiastic greeting.

            "Mrs Figg! Arabella! Hiya! How are you? Arabella, come and meet Remmy!"

            Arabella surveyed the children. Lily looked well and happy, despite her bandaged face, and her eyes shone with a combination of excitement and some strange power. The boy, Remus, looked rather pale and gaunt – he could do with some fattening up, she decided. He had sandy brown hair, and grey eyes that seemed somehow rather old and tired. Then his face split into a smile, and he transformed into a rather mischievous looking child. 

            "Nice to meet you, Mrs Figg," he said, shaking her hand solemnly. Arabella smiled widely at him. Lily had a good friend in this one. "The pleasure's mine, Remus, dear." An enigma, but a very good friend.

***

            The first week of the holidays passed in what seemed to Lily a joyous haze, where the days somehow melted together and, in thinking back over the week, the only distinct memories she had were of a constant sense of contented, cheerful busyness. Her and Arabella baked mince pies and Christmas biscuits, picked holly from the woods nearby, and decorated the house from top to bottom. Lily especially liked the sparkling fairies which gathered in the corners of rooms, whispering and giggling. Arabella also managed to drag Lily along to a carol concert, which in the event Lily enjoyed so much that she spent the rest of the week dancing around the house singing carols, making up the words when she didn't know them. 

            Christmas Eve dawned clear and cold, with frost on the ground and a chill in the air. It was a perfect winter's day, glittering and glistening magically. But Lily couldn't enjoy it as it deserved. Before she and Arabella could commence that most pleasant of activities – the celebration of Christmas – Lily had to undergo one more ordeal. The removal – finally – of the bandages covering her face. 


	13. Soul Mask

Well, here – finally – is the next chapter. Perhaps it's not quite what some of you were expecting, judging from the reviews I've got, but I hope you enjoy it none the less. My next update might take a while, as I'm on adventurous training in the Lake District and Snowdonia for the next two weeks, and then the week after Easter, we're doing a play – the Lion King – and I'm Simba, so my schedules stacked full of rehearsals. Rest assured, though, that I'll get you the next chapter as soon as I can!

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Chapter 13 – Soul-Mask 

            Lily was so nervous as she entered the hospital that she shook uncontrollably. Her hand was clasped tight in Arabella's, and she was resolutely ignoring the stares of the people she passed – something she had grown used to, after wearing the bandages for so long.

            Arabella, although nearly as nervous as Lily, was hiding it better, greeting the other nurses as she passed them.

            Time seemed to be behaving very oddly – it was passing in dollops, racing ahead then seemingly stopping. The journey through the hospital, accordingly, passed in a blur, and before she knew it, Lily was lying in a hospital bed, looking up at a crinkly-eyed healer, and trying desperately not to hyperventilate. The healer looked down at her, asked her to relax, and took up a pair pf scissors. 

            "We're doing this the Muggle way," he explained to Arabella, when she looked at him in askance. "We don't like to use Severing charms in the facial area – one of our trainees had a rather nasty accident a few years back."

            Hearing this did nothing to make Lily feel better, and she shut her eyes tightly as the scissors approached. The next thing she felt was cold metal against the undamaged side of her face, and the comforting whispers of Arabella, trying to get her to relax and not move. She couldn't help it, tensing up involuntarily. The next two sensations came so close together, she wasn't quite sure which was first. She felt the air on her face, a simple pleasure she had not had in months, but almost simultaneously she felt great pain, as the bandages were torn off the damaged side of her face, where the wound still wept and had adhered to the cloth. 

            Still shaking, Lily set up. Both the healer and Arabella were looking anxiously at her, but she ignored them as she raised a hand to her face. She lightly skated her fingers down it, feeling first the undamaged side. Then she touched the other side. And burst into tears. 

***

            Arabella wasn't sure of quite what to do. It was Christmas Eve, and Lily had spent the entire afternoon sat in front of a mirror, a tear occasionally running down her cheek. She knew Lily was disappointed at the extent she was still scared – it seemed she had fallen into the usual Muggle-born trap of believing anything could be solved by magic. 

            Lily stared at herself blankly. The mirror had long since given up trying to cheer her up, and was now off somewhere sulking about some comment or other Lily had snapped back at her. She was grateful for the quiet. She knew her hopes had been high, but somehow she had expected that when the bandages came off, everything would be okay, and she'd be normal again. But the hardened, darkened skin, still looking slightly red and raw, that began above her left eye and spread down her cheek, would still mark her as different from her peers. The scabbing, at least, would clear up – the most hideous part of the scarring. But still, she sat and stared and thought about her loss, and the tears still fell. 

***

            Christmas day, and Arabella was still worried. Lily was still morose, although she was making an obvious effort to appear cheerful, if only for Arabella's sake. Arabella berated herself internally – why hadn't she expected something like this to happen? She supposed she, like Lily, had been too busy hoping everything would be fine, without thinking about what would happen if it wasn't. 

            She fixed on a smile, and suggested to Lily that they go through to the living room and open their presents – she didn't think she could stand much longer of the silent, gloomy atmosphere in the kitchen. 

            Lily perked up slightly at this, and a weak, but genuine smile appeared. Arabella was immensely relieved – Lily would be okay, in time. 

            The sparkling Christmas tree seemed to cheer Lily further, as well as the carols the portraits were singing. Arabella fetched some mince pies in and was pleased to see Lily at almost her usual happy self, excited about her presents, the scarring seemingly forgotten. 

            Lily, whose past Christmases had been low-key, to say the least, was overjoyed with her presents, especially the broom, a top of the range Shooting Star, from Arabella – complete with a permission letter from Kitty McGonagall to be able to use it at Hogwarts. Arabella told her it was for use in her upcoming flying lessons. 

            "We can't have you on one of those awful school brooms – downright dangerous, they are. It'll put you off for life!"

            Her other favourite presents were the white gold charm bracelet from Remus – it had a tiny moving dragon, with cold eyes and breathing what looked like real fire, although it didn't harm her, and came with a promise of more charms for her next birthday – and also her gift from Professor Dumbledore. When Lily asked Arabella about this, she explained that for those who hadn't grown up around magic, it was customary for the 'discoverer', so to speak, to become a mentor figure of a kind, a sort of surrogate parent to go to with problems to do with magic, that a Muggle guardian just wouldn't understand. Dumbledore's gift was magical art supplies; animated clay, and paints and pastels to produce moving pictures. Lily couldn't wait to try them out, but she restrained herself, waiting for Boxing Day, and a brilliant idea, in order to do them justice. 

            For Christmas dinner, Arabella's sister and her husband and two children came over, along with a couple of the nurses from the hospital where Arabella worked. Lily greeted them all politely, and made conversation around the dinner table, but it was obvious that she was happiest playing with six-year-old Becky and four-year-old Rachel, and the new toys they'd got for Christmas. In the manner of small children, though, they were extremely tiring and eventually, when Lily had all but fallen asleep on the living room floor, Arabella ushered her upstairs to bed. 

            Lily went to sleep that night with a smile on her face, and woke up the next morning with a brilliant idea.

***

            When, at lunchtime, Lily still hadn't emerged from her bedroom, Arabella started to get worried. She had assumed Lily was sleeping off the energetic evening with Rachel and Becky, but was slightly scared Lily would fall into depression over her scarring – now likely to be permanent. 

            She knocked on the door several times, and after getting no reply, she went in, apprehensively. Lily was sat at her desk, deep in what looked like a trance, and didn't even notice Arabella's entrance or approach. 

            Arabella saw that Lily was engrossed in her work, in moulding and shaping, in sculpture, in clay – and tiptoed from the room.

***

            It was gone dinnertime when Lily left the sanctuary of her room. She was starving, having not eaten all day – where had all that time gone? She went down into the kitchen, the stone tiles cold on her bare feet, and searched for leftovers. She heard Arabella's footsteps on the stone behind her, and then her voice asking if she was okay, if there was anything she could get her, if she was feeling any better. Lily raised a hand to her face, touched the smooth, cool surface, smiled, and turned around. 

***

            Arabella gasped. Lily was beautiful, a blaze of colour. She was wearing a mask, and it took Arabella several awestruck moments to realise that this was what had kept Lily in her room all day – that she had made it. It was painted a deep, dark purple, which made the scarlet lips stand out vividly. On the forehead, a phoenix swooped and swerved, and a rainbow arched above the left eye. A trail of silver stars led up the nose and over the right eye, whilst on the left cheek a white lily bloomed. Arabella saw Lily's smile grow wider – smiling, as she had not done in days – and she saw that the clay had moulded to her face, moving as if it were her skin. 

            "Lily… wow!" Arabella finally managed. "It's gorgeous!"

            "It's me."

            Arabella pondered the odd phrase as she looked closer at the mask. She noticed a tear falling from beneath the left eye, and suddenly it clicked – the mask _was_ Lily. It was a reflection of her personality, her spirit, showing her fiery temper, her pain and sadness, her sudden and unexpected happiness and humour, her growth, the darkness that marred her and the light that shone through. And though at first it had been the mask's beauty that struck her, it was, perhaps, it's soul that was the most awe-inspiring thing of all. 

So Lily's bandages came off – and you were all expecting her to suddenly become beautiful and popular? Sorry to disappoint, but that's not really my style – it involves making things far too easy!


	14. Micecream

Well, here we go, and about tine too I hear you say. Well, I think you'll probably have to get used to the waiting – I'm just starting exam revision, and I've been made a shadow-prefect, so I'm crazily busy at the moment. I'll try and update as soon as I can.

The first year should only last another chapter or so – I've got pretty much everything I want in there. There are still six more years to go, though!

I hope you enjoy this chapter – once again, the transfiguration lesson hijacked the chapter – my muses are obviously fans!

Chapter 14 – Mice-cream 

            It was actually quite amusing, Lily reflected, watching Remus struggle for coherency, when he was usually so eloquent. He stood stock still, jaw flapping, staring at her. 

            To say Remus was shocked was an understatement. He'd hoped for the best and prepared for the worst, but never envisaged anything like this. Lily's mask was incredibly beautiful, and made her look different, somehow – he couldn't put his finger on it. Stronger, maybe, older, definitely more mysterious.

            "Snap out of it, Remmie! It's just me – I'm no different." Lily said cheerfully, evidently getting rather impatient with his staring. 

            "Yes, Lil, whatever you say. Let's just get on the train."

***

            Lily was getting really rather exasperated with the tendency of her peers to gawp, point and whisper when she passed. She constantly fought the urge to snap at them that they should be used to strange occurrences – they were witches and wizards, after all.

            She'd enjoyed the incredulous, curious stares of the students for a day or so, but now the novelty had worn off, she was becoming easily irritated by it. 

            Apart from this minor annoyance, Lily's term was going brilliantly. She had begun experimenting with the singing charms, and although progress was slow, she'd managed to levitate her desk in Charms, which Professor Caravette had been overjoyed with, even though it had left a small crater in the classroom floor when her song had faltered. They'd also begun flying lessons, which had been somewhat surprising…

***

            Lily was rather apprehensive about flying lessons. The sixth years had  been entertaining themselves the night before by telling the first years horror stories about flying accidents and broom related injuries. Although Lily was sceptical about many of these tall tales, she believed enough of them to be more than a little nervous as she mounted her broom for the first time. 

            As she kicked off from the ground, she shut her eyes tightly, certain she'd fall – but she didn't. She felt the wind whipping through her hair, the gentle motion of her broom – and she tentatively opened her eyes.

            The view down onto the grounds and the castle was breathtaking. Lily stopped her broom in mid air and looked around, enthralled. Everything was so small!

            She took a deep breath, and headed back down as the teacher had instructed, and suddenly her fears evaporated. She shook out her hair, grinned mischievously, and headed downwards in a steep dive, barrel rolling as she went. And at that moment, she fell in love with flying. It was wonderful, it was magical, it was… freedom.

            She looped the loop as she land, and smiled widely as she pictured her next flight. It took her several moments to register the slightly flabbergasted faces of the other students, and the furious visage of the Flying Instructor. 

            "Sorry – I got a bit carried away…"

***

            "Come on, Lils, we'll be late for Transfiguration." Remus brought Lily out of her breakfast daydream, and they headed off.

            Kitty McGonagall was late, as ever, and by the time she arrived. The classroom was chaos. Somehow, Sirius had managed to turn one of the desks into an apple tree, and most of the students were currently varying heights off the ground, clambering around the branches trying to grab as many apples as they could. As Kitty entered, the smallest Gryffindor girl, Charlotte Llamar, lost her grip and tumbled out of the tree. Kitty rapidly transfigured one of the desks into a cushion beneath her, to break her fall, before turning to the rest of the class, ordering them out of the tree, and returning it to its former state. 

            "That's quite enough of that. If you want to scrump for apples and break your heads in the process, do it in your own time, not mine." She scanned the class for guilty faces, and immediately picked out the culprit. "Ah, Sirius Black. That'll be another detention – trying for my record? Now, what was I going to do with you today? Oh, yes – mice to icecream. It's such a hot day – if you can make something edible, you can eat it, and cool down a little – how's that for motivation?"

            Lily grasped her brown field mouse by the tail, and looked at it rather sceptically. The heat really was oppressive, and Lily's hair was stuck to the back of her neck, trickles of sweat crawling down her back. If she had to transfigure a rodent in order to cool down, then by Merlin, that's what she'd do.

            She replaced the mouse onto her desk, where it scampered away from her fingers. She stared at it intently, fixing its image in her mind, and closed her eyes. Then she envisaged the icecream she was craving, and overlaid the images, as Kitty had told her. When the two images held in place, she sang a note – just a single, pure sound. She opened her eyes again.

            "Dammit!" The mouse was still a mouse, now sniffing inquisitively at her bottle of ink. 

            "Rem, why do I suck so much at Transfiguration?" Remus opened his mouth to reply, but Kitty McGonagall, approaching from behind, beat him to it.

            "You don't, as you so eloquently put it, 'suck' at Transfiguration, Lily. You know your spells are more complex than what the others are doing. Remember, song charms are about emotion – you have to _want_ it, Lily."

            Lily smiled weakly, sighed, and returned her attention to the mouse. It had begun nibbling thoughtfully on the corner of her Transfiguration textbook. She watched as it wrinkled its nose, and brushed a shred of paper from its whiskers. She closed her eyes, but she could still see the mouse as clearly as when they were open. Again, she imagined icecream, and when the separate images were clear in her mind, she superimposed the icecream onto the mouse. The image flickered, as her doubts emerged, but she refused to let it fade. She held the two images tight together, until they no longer _were_ separate images. They combined, and somehow, for an instant, the mouse and the icecream were the same thing, and Lily could see both existing at the same spot at the same time, yet she couldn't see where one ended and the other began. This time, when she opened her mouth, she poured her feelings into the note – her fatigue at the heat, her longing for icecream, her she stubborn will that the mouse would _be_ icecream.

            She felt Remus's hand on her shoulder, and shook herself out of the trance she hadn't even realised she'd fallen into.

            "Look, Lils – you did it!"

            Lily turned to her desk, and there, melting slightly onto her Transfiguration book, was what was unmistakeably an ice lolly. Although still mouse shaped, its tail had stiffened and straightened, holding the icecream as a wooden stick usually did. The mouse itself had turned from brown to a pale pink, and as Lily picked it up and began to eat, the success of her transfiguration was clear, as she savoured the taste of strawberries.

            "Well done, Lily. I knew you could do it," said Kitty. Lily grinned at her, and looked around the classroom. Although her mice-cream was by no means the best – Sirius and James had managed a banana split and a knickerbocker glory respectively – she was overjoyed that she'd managed it at all. Her very first transfiguration – unless you counted the disastrous first lesson, of course. A feeling of elation bubbled up inside her, and she beamed so widely it was rather surprising that the top of her head didn't fall off.

***

            Lily's high spirits had by no means faded by the evening. She bounced around the Gryffindor common room, full of excess energy, until the glares led Remus to suggest they went to the library, before the other students resorted to homicide to quieten her. Once out in the corridors, though, Remus had no clue what to do. With Lily in her current state of hyperness, there was no way they'd be allowed within a hundred metres of the library. In the end it was Lily herself that solved the problem.

            "I know, Rem – let's go prank someone! Do let's! We haven't pulled anything for ages - I'll be quite out of practice at this rate."

            Remus considered the overwhelming arguments against this plan, resolutely decided to ignore them, and agreed.

            "OK, Lils – what's the plan?"

***


	15. Fanged Platypuses and Friendships Forged

Sorry about the absolutely horrendous lateness of this chapter. The end of term was crazy, with my exams, summer camp in Scotland (ugh! Midges and ration packs!), university visits, military parades… you get the idea. At least the studying was worth it – I got my results today – 4 A's!

I've also not had as much time as I'd like to write this holidays, as I have a pretty much fulltime job, but I have been scribbling away in my few empty moments on trains and so on, and here's the result – I hope you like it!

**Chapter 15 - Fanged Platypuses and Friendships Forged**

The common rooms, as the students passed through them on the way to breakfast, were as they had left them.

When the bleary-eyed students stumbled into breakfast, they noticed nothing odd, or out of place. There was nothing peculiar – well, more peculiar than usual – about the first lessons of the day either.

Walking down the Charms corridor on his way to lunch, however, Sirius did get an inkling of something strange going on when his nose detached itself from his face, rebounded from the floor, smacked him in the forehead and bounced off down the corridor, James's nose in rapid pursuit.

The two boys looked at each other, before chasing down the corridor after their mischievous appendages.

As they rounded the corridor into a more populated area of the school, their noses managed to slip away, as they gawped at the mayhem.

Everyone's noses had decided to make a run for it. A Ravenclaw girl by the name of Amy Paulusma was trying to rescue hers from a mouse hole, two fifth year Gryffindors had stolen a second year's nose and seemed to be playing a game akin to tennis with it. Sirius recognised his cousin Bellatrix among the chaos, in a towering rage and hexing anything and everything she could, and the hyperactive Charms professor was bounding down the corridor after her nose – throwing herself around and causing both herself and several students considerable damage as she tried to imitate the acrobatics of her nose.

Sirius stared in shock, absentmindedly grabbing his nose as it passed, chasing Severus Snape down the corridor, bouncing off his head. But it was not the widespread chaos, interesting though that was, that enthralled Sirius. It was a glowing silver message, hovering above the archway to the entrance hall – "Courtesy of the Phantoms".

James let out a low whistle in awe. "Wow… incredible." Sirius just scowled.

The next day the students were slightly more wary as they made their way through the corridors to breakfast. They relaxed slightly when they arrived without mishap, and began to eat cautiously, still nervous of 'additives' to the food. When nothing seemed to cause any unexpected side effects, most of the Hogwarts students dropped their guard somewhat. This was a mistake.

As usual, halfway through breakfast the owl post arrived. As usual, few students so much as glanced up at the birds swooping in. Unusually, however, the birds in question were not owls.

They were, actually, chickens. Few students noticed this discrepancy until instead of the post they usually delivered, the chickens began divebombing eggs with deadly accuracy.

In the first salvo, over a third of the students – and the dour Professor O'Cairn – had been amply splattered with egg yolk. As the chickens swooped sown to fire off some more eggs, most of the students, now alert to the threat, managed to dodge the missiles, However the chickens were relentless and by the end of breakfast over half the students had to return to their dormitories before first lesson to change their clothes, rinse off the egg white and wash the shell from their hair. The more observant students noticed the shimmering silver message on the Great Hall floor, claiming the chaos once again as the work of the Phantoms, although most were more interested in cleaning themselves up.

Sirius, who had remained unscathed by the prank, had a face like a thundercloud on noticing this. James, also relatively clean, chattered to him about how amazing the Phantoms were, and who on earth they could be, before Sirius, fed to the back teeth, snapped at him.

"And what about us? We're losing our touch, being cheated of our glory! Our reputation is being tarnished! It is time for the Marauders to strike back!

The next morning, the ceiling of the Great Hall rained custard. Unlike mpst of the students, who had taken refuge under the tables at the appearance of the peculiar precipitation – the smarter ones amongst them rescuing platters of kippers or scrambled eggs before they became inedible – Sirius leant back on his chair with a smug, satisfied expression. As a sudden explosion startled the more intrepid pupils from under the tables, Sirius's smile of self-congratulation grew as the fireworks that had just gone off spelt out 'The Marauders' in red and gold, and tickertape fell among the custard. The Marauders were back on top of the league. All was right with the world.

In the weeks that followed, most of the teaching staff were driven to despair by the constant interruptions to their lessons. Professor O'Cairn was livid when his sixth year class spent three days unable to say anything but "rhubarb". The Charms classroom became home to several colonies of frogs after the day that the entirety of Ravenclaw were afflicted with frog in the throat – the amphibians would hop out instead of words whenever the students attempted to speak.

There were augureys hidden in the suits of armour, and anyone who tried to make their way to the dungeons sunk into the floor until only their heads were visible. The final straw, though, came when the hordes of fanged platypuses roaming the school chased Filch into the astronomy tower, and didn't let him come down for a week.

As anarchy reigned in Hogwarts, the teachers were at the end of their tether, only Kitty McGonagall, and perhaps Dumbledore, finding any amusement in the situation. The only problem was, though many teachers yearned for vengeance on the perpetrators, no one could discover who the mysterious Phantoms, who claimed responsibility for the pranks, were.

Sirius, too, attempted to uncover the pranksters' identities, but for a very different reason. His own prank had appeased his pride, and now having recognised the Phantoms as masters of their craft, Sirius was hoping for some hints and tips, a sharing of ideas, perhaps even an alliance. It was with this in mind that he and James were out of bed well past curfew, roaming the school in search of the secretive jokesters.

It took several days, and a close call with Filch, before they made any progress…

"That'll bring everything towards 'em instantly – we won't get enough people that way – they'll have forewarning."

"Add in a timer to the spell, set it on a delayed reaction."

"How long for?"

"I dunno… about fifteen minutes. That way everyone'll be still at breakfast – lots of cutlery and so on for it to work with, plus we'll get a good view."

"Sounds like a plan. Oh and the plates and goblets are metal, too aren't they! It'll be mayhem."

"Should keep them on their toes, at least…"

"Sshhh! Can you hear something?"

Silence fell, and James gritted his teeth to hold back the curse that came to his lips. They were so close to the discovery of the Phantoms, and he cursed the echo of the Entrance Hall that magnified even the slightest sound. Sirius, crouched beside him, seemed to come to a decision. James watched in horror as he rose to his feet and said, "The Phantoms?"

Lily and Remus exchamged wide-eyed glances as a voice came from the darkness behind them. Whirling around, Lily knew they'd finally been found out. Raising her chin proudly, she prepared to face the consequences.

"Yes. And you are…?"

"The Marauders. We wish an alliance."

Again Lily and Remus exchanged looks, this time of incredulity, relief and suspicion.

"For what purpose?" Lily asked warily.

"For the best end of term prank in the history of Hogwarts," came the immediate reply from the strange voice.

Lily contemplated this, whispered a few words to Remus, and smiled.

"We accept."

"Excellent. Come tomorrow at six to the empty classroom at the base of the West tower."

Lily agreed, and the footsteps echoed slightly as the Marauders left.

She turned back to Remus and yawned.

"Come on, let's finish adapting this spell and go to bed. I could do with some beauty sleep!"

Sirius was practically buzzing with anticipation the next day. An alliance with the Phantoms, prankers extraordinaire!

The day seemed to crawl. The only way Sirius managed to get through it at all was to reminisce about the Phantoms' breakfast prank.

It had been clear last night that the Phantoms had placed some kind of charm on the entrance to the Great Hall. However, he hadn't been able to deduce from the snippets of overheard conversation what the spell would do.

Sirius spent most of breakfast glancing surreptitiously around the room, trying to spot the prank. Nothing seemed to be happening, at least until half way through breakfast, when he looked across the table at a third year, Natalie Fitzgerald, who seemed incapable of putting down her knife and fork to leave the table. He then noticed a Hufflepuff boy, who had been helping himself to fried tomatoes and now was unable to relinquish the bowl, as if his hands had been superglued to it, and was now extorting his friends to help pull the thing off.

No sooner did Sirius make these observations than all hell broke lose.

All over the hall, platters and pitchers began to zoom towards the students, scattering their contents indiscriminately as they went. They attached themselves to the students, whose attempts to remove then were unavailing, for as soon as they touched them, their hands became as securely fastened to the dishes as the dishes were to them. Sitting in his seat, covered in pumpkin juice and scrambled egg, Sirius guffawed, drawing strange looks from everyone around him, as he realised exactly what the Phantoms had done. They'd made all the students magnetic.

Thinking back on this memory, Sirius chuckled again as he made his way to the West tower, James beside him. His impatience had made the day's lessons seem endless, but six o'clock had finally arrived, and it was time to meet the Phantoms.

Reaching the West tower, Sirius paused outside as his stomach gave a bubble of excitement. He grasped the door handle and pushed the door open, before freezing in the door way. He stood stock still, gaping, for several moments, flabbergasted at what he saw before gasping out, "You?!"

"Yes," said Lily calmly. "Us."

James was gobsmacked. That the myriad pranks, pulled with such flair , had originated from these two rather quiet, introverted individuals was absurd; yet, thinking back to their prank war, he could see glimpses of the originality and finesse that made the Phantoms pranks so good.

Seeing Sirius still gaping like a goldfish, James rolled his eyes and decided to take matters into his own hands.

"What about this end of term prank then?" he said, in a voice slightly louder than usual. "Any ideas?"

It became a not unusual sight to now see the four first years sequestered together in a corner of the common room, chatting quietly amongst themselves or even flicking through library books, making notes, although what they were researching, no one knew. This development was met at first by incredulity, as the fiasco of the prank war and the hostility that proceeded it still fresh in the students' minds. The speculation quickly died down, however, as the looming end of year examinations claimed the students' attention. The few who noticed that certain of the Gryffindor first years were not devoting themselves entirely to revision dismissed the observation as unimportant and soon turned their thoughts back to their own textbooks…

The end of term was upon them, and the Hogwarts students, relieved the year was over, relished the chance to kick back a bit and relax at the end of term feast. No one noticed that four of the students seemed to be enjoying themselves a little too much, or recognised this for the ominous sign it was.

The House Cup had been awarded to Ravenclaw, and the feast was almost over before Lily gave the signal to trigger the spells. James, who had been watching her, waiting for this moment throughout the meal, marvelled at the friendship that had sprung up in the group over the last month. At first, merely an alliance between two pairs with a common interest – causing mass mayhem at the end of term feast – the Gryffindors had grown close as they got to know each other, and James now considered Lily and Remus to be some of the best people he knew - and the most fun. His overtures of friendship had been tentative at first, as he remembered the awful way he had treated the pair – especially Lily. She had just rolled her eyes and laughed at him, saying, "Yeah, yeah. You were wrong and we were right and you apologise from the depths of your soul for your juvenile, insensitive behaviour, blah, blah, blah. Heard it all before – from Sirius, in fact." James had grinned, and a firm friendship had been formed between the four, with the past forgiven, if not forgotten – James was going to be very wary of pissing Lily off in future.

James was shocked out of his thoughts by the giggles around him. He grinned widely as he saw the prefects start to shrink in size. Soon they were just under a foot high and they began to stiffen, the squeaky-voiced protests dying as they became incapable of motion. Their clothes began to change, beards began to grow, and in under a minute the entire prefect body had become Muggle garden gnomes. The attention of the giggling students was torn from this glorious spectacle as a spout of water grew out of the centre of the floor like a willow tree, followed by a wide stone pool. The fountain flowed merrily for a few moments before the entire faculty – bar the headmaster – made a leap off the dais, seemingly in order to call a halt to the havoc, but somehow in mid air the staff simultaneously became sea lions. After a few surprised looks, the teachers adapted readily to their new species, and began to frolic happily in the fountain, the occasional fish salvaged from the remnants of the feast being thrown their way by the jubilant students.

Changes were now starting to come over the headmaster, too. With a pop, his purple wizarding robes were replaced by a brightly coloured Hawaiian shirt and shades appeared in place of his half moon spectacles. Finally, his beard wove itself into dreadlocks. Conjuring a mirror from mid air, Dumbledore surveyed his reflection with a faint smile, before turning back to the student body and remarking, "Well, man. This be jammin'"

Few of the students heeded the remark of the ancient Rastafarian, as they now became distracted by various predicaments themselves. Several of them sprouted antlers, more began to walk around the Great Hall on their hands, while the remainder found their tongues transfigured into party blowers.

The distraction also proved useful; for Sirius, James, Remus and Lily, 'miraculously' unscathed by the various magical ailments, who exchanged high fives before settling back to watch the grand finale.

Confetti showered from the ceiling, and in a final message from the friends, glowing golden letters, four foot high, appeared hovering over the staff table.

"Congratulation for surviving the year! From the Marauders and the Phantoms – rescuers from boredom and small scale terrorists!"

Lily smiled across the table at Remus.

"Well, I guess that's that – one down, and six to go…"

So there we are! The end of the first year.

I want a little advice from my readers – would you rather this continued as one big story, or should I do each year as a separate story? It'll be the same plot, same content, just a different way of formatting it. Which would you prefer?

Let me know!

BTW, I've also updated another of my stories (to make up for the appalling delay!) "Harry Potter and the Enchanter's Heir" – check it out if you have some spare time, I'd love some more feedback for it.


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